The Final Adventure
by Kiara.Kaze
Summary: Here is the next story in the Kiara/Kaze adventure. This one is immediately after "The Strange Tennants" so if you haven't read that one, please do. This one is in the world of Yu Yu Hakusho and answers a lot of questions (while hopefully not raising any more). This is the last story in the adventure to find Kaze's memories, so it is a little longer than the previous ones.
1. Chapter 1

**Here's the latest story in the Kiara and Kaze series. This one is in the Yu Yu Hakusho realm (kind of) but takes place in "America". If you like it, please review!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or any of it's characters.**

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"Kia, remind me why we're here," Kaze demanded, turning angry green eyes away from her reflection and on her overly-busty best friend, who was currently backing away with her hands up in a defensive pose.

"W-we have to find out where all those slaves are going," Kiara replied, her blue eyes looking off to the side as her best friend glared at her.

"And why did you change me into this?!" Kaze screeched, spinning to see herself in the mirror again. Her long brown hair with red and blonde highlights was gone, replaced by shaggy, sandy-brown hair that stopped just above her shoulders, cut in a way a boy would wear his hair. She was wearing a loose white shirt and jeans which hid her small figure, further creating the illusion that she was a boy. In addition, Kiara had cut down Kaze's size by about a foot so now she stood shorter than Kiara herself at four feet and ten inches.

"All of the missing slaves were guys!" Kiara said. "Besides, you look… innocent pretty-boy cute…?" Kaze threw a punch at Kiara, but the latter dodged it, running away.

"When I agreed to be the slave, I didn't think I'd end up like this!" Kaze yelled. "You be the guy this time!"

"My chest is too large!" Kiara yelled. "Besides, you know what they do to women slaves in that place. Our employer was very specific that the slave had to be male! Or… to at least pretend to be…"

"And if I'm expected to shower with the other slaves?" Kaze asked, picking up the couch Kiara was hiding behind and moving it aside.

"Just use your magic and create smoke or fog or whatever!" Kiara yelled, dodging around Kaze again. "Besides, you did NOT get the worse end of this deal. I have to dress like this! I'll fall out!" She waved at her own clothes, curtsey of Kaze. Kiara wore a skin-tight, red velvet mini-dress, matching heels, choker, and jewelry, with a matching headband holding her reddish brown hair back out of her eyes. "I let you do this, so I chose what you looked like!"

Kaze pouted, crossing her arms. "I didn't change your height," she mumbled. "And I left your hair alone."

"Well, you can't pretend to be a boy with calf-length hair, now can you?" Kiara laughed, happy that Kaze wasn't trying to punch her still. She picked up their two bags, looking around at the hotel room they were about to leave. "We have everything, right?" She asked. Kaze nodded, sighing. "Let's go then. It's just down the street."

"Did our employer mention anything about cameras in the rooms?" Kaze asked, taking a bag from Kiara and following her out of the room.

"He said that there wasn't any," Kiara replied. "Which is good because otherwise this wouldn't work. They'd find out we weren't in any kind of intimate relationship like that and that you're actually female."

"These limits on magic suck," Kaze sighed. "I still sound like my old self, too! The slaves wear clothes in public, right?"

"According to our employer," Kiara laughed. "We'll be okay, even if our magic can't change our anatomy, voices or eyes."

"Yet we can change our height," Kaze mused.

"Temporarily," Kiara reminded her. "You're height and hair will go back to normal if I don't renew the spell every twelve hours." The two walked within sight of the establishment they had been hired to investigate, a dark, red brick building with large windows lining the walls, moving up to six stories above them.

"Whorehouses," Kaze spat as they stood outside. "They're the stain of this world. The president legalizing whoring was the downfall of this country."

"He was a demon, you remember," Kiara sighed, ringing the bell. "And not a good one, even."

"And now demons are in control," Kaze grimaced. "I don't remember much before that day, and that was about four years ago."

Kiara bit her lip. "To think I've already hit the age of twenty-four," she finally laughed as Kaze flipped her sandy hair into her eyes to hide any feminine features in her face.

"A stain," Kaze spat again, not listening to Kiara's comment. The door opened to reveal a large woman with blue snakes for hair and green scales for skin.

"Hello, Madame," Kiara said, smiling happily at the demon. "You must be the one I was told to see. I am Sakura and this is my slave, Maru." Kaze bowed slightly when she heard the names she and Kiara had decided upon the night before.

"Ah, yes," the woman replied in a silky voice. "We have been expecting you, please come in." Kaze picked up the bags they had set down before the door opened and followed Kiara into the main hall. "Your room is just up the stairs-ah, Miss Naoko," she waved to a tall woman with red hair that hung just past her shoulders and soft green eyes in a subtle green dress. "Would you please show Miss Sakura to the empty room next to yours?"

"Of course," Naoko purred, her voice slightly deeper than expected. Kaze looked up through her hair to the woman and was surprised to see red eyes staring at her from beside Naoko. The man who followed her had black hair that was spiked up and red, almond shaped eyes. He was taller than Naoko, who looked to be about a foot taller than Kaze was now, and he wore a black t-shirt and black pants with bare feet, the normal footwear for a slave, and a piece of white cloth on his forehead. He had a collar around his neck and Kaze notice that the Madame was handing one to Kiara, most likely for Kaze to wear.

"Come, Maru," Kiara ordered, following the red-haired Naoko up the stairs. Kaze dropped her head and fell into step behind Kiara, next to Naoko's slave.

"Be nice to Maru, Roku," Naoko called down to her slave, leading Kiara down the hallway.

"Maru?" Roko whispered, his voice deep. Kaze nodded. "That's a nice name."

"And you're Roku?" Kaze asked, resisting the urge to raise an eyebrow. This man certainly did not look like a Roku to Kaze.

He smirked at her. "Yea… Ahem, Naoko named me," he replied, clearing his throat.

"Here we are, Maru!" Kiara yelled, opening the door of their temporary home and leading Kaze inside.

Before following Kiara, Kaze turned to Naoko and Roku and bowed. "Thank you," she muttered, keeping her voice low so as to not draw attention to it being too high for a boy. Roku bowed back and Naoko smiled and waved before they both disappeared into their own room, one door to the right.

Kiara shut the door, taking their bags from Kaze and throwing them onto the bed. "Soooo, what do you think of Naoko and Roku?" Kiara asked, snickering.

"They are hiding something," Kaze replied, folding her arms and frowning at the floor. "We should definitely try to figure out what that is." She looked up at Kiara, who was watching her intently. "I have a feeling Naoko is not a woman," Kaze finally whispered, leaning closer to Kiara. "Her voice is too deep and, while 'she' looks very feminine, there's something off. The only thing I can tell you for certain is that her hair is real."

Kiara nodded before flopping back onto the bed. "Well, the Madame gave me a general schedule and 'Naoko' told me what they usually do during the day and where everything is," she said, pulling a couple pieces of paper out. "We should probably start by trying to be friends with those two and learn what goes on and if they know anything about these disappearances."

Kaze sighed, adjusted her oversized shirt, and put the collar around her neck. "Let's go then. I don't want to be here any longer than we have to." Kiara stood up and lead Kaze from the room.


	2. Chapter 2

**Here's chapter 2! These first few seem pretty short, but they'll lengthen later.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or its characters.**

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"Ah, Naoko!" She said, noticing that the two were just coming out of their room. Naoko smiled at Kiara and waved her over.

"Would you like to join us today, Miss Kiara?" Naoko asked. Kiara nodded and fell into step with her as Roku walked next to Kaze. "Today we decided to…" Naoko began describing what they intended to do that day as Roku eyed Kaze.

"How long have you been… Um… Sakura's?" Roku asked in a whisper, tugging at his collar. Kaze noticed then that he was now being led by a long cord from the collar to Naoko's hand. Naoko was just handing a similar one to Kiara and Kaze stopped walking, seriously considering bolting.

"It helps keep others away from him," Naoko was explaining as Kiara studied the cord. Kaze sighed and relented, allowing Kiara to attach it to her collar. "This way no one will try to take him away. I had the unfortunate experience of losing H-Roku my first day and the Madame gave me this to keep track of him."

Kaze dropped her head as she and Roku were led by the two women. "Not very long," Kaze finally answered Roku, turning to see him. "She certainly never put me on a leash. And you?"

"The same for me," Roku replied, grimacing. "We've been here for about a week though, so I had expected to get used to the leash."

"No such luck, huh?" Kaze asked sympathetically as Roku tried to adjust his collar again.

Kaze and Roku talked whenever they could over the next week, Kaze careful not to reveal too much about who she was while noticing Roku seemed to be doing the same. However, they weren't allowed to talk unless their "masters" were also with them, otherwise other demons would try to claim them, usually leading to yelling matches and sometimes all out fights between Naoko or Kiara and the offending demon.

Kiara and Kaze whispered information to each other at night after noticing that some demons would try to eavesdrop on them at their door. "I haven't learned anything about the missing slaves," Kiara whispered, tugging a brush through her hair. "Naoko doesn't seem to want to talk about them when I try to bring them up…"

"You also haven't ever really been very good at subtle hints," Kaze pointed out. "They're usually too subtle for men to pick up on."

"You really believe Naoko's a man?" Kiara asked, choosing to ignore Kaze's comment about her subtlety. "What proof do you have?"

"He doesn't pick up one your subtle hints," Kaze stated, watching as her shaggy brown hair grew past her shoulders. In seconds it was nearly sweeping the floor. "My hair is getting long," she mused, deciding not to put it in a ponytail.

Kiara sighed. "Is that all?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No," Kaze continued, sweeping her hair out of the way and sitting on the bed. "His eyes aren't very feminine, his voice is too deep, he has less chest than I do-"

"What?" Kiara laughed. "Her chest is huge! Didn't you see it? She was just complaining about not being able to see her feet!"

"Except her 'breasts' don't move like they should," Kaze sighed, laying back. "While he's moving one way, one will follow while the other will go the other way."

"Um… Why are you looking at her chest?" Kiara asked. "I didn't know you swung that way-ow!" Kaze threw a pillow sharply at Kiara, glaring at her.

"I don't," Kaze snapped. "I like guys waaaay too much. I just noticed something was off, so I watched her."

"Okay, okay, so Naoko's a man. Got it," Kiara mumbled. "That was a really hard pillow."

"So you're subtlety didn't work, did you ask him outright about the disappearances?" Kaze asked.

"Y'know, you aren't very good at subtle hints yourself," Kiara snapped, tired of Kaze pointing that flaw out.

"I don't use them," Kaze said, blinking in surprise. "Didn't you notice? I like straightforward comments, you don't have to think about what's hidden underneath."

Kiara sighed, shaking her head in defeat. "Um, no I didn't ask him outright," she answered instead. "I don't want him thinking I know too much. And besides, have YOU found out anything?"

"Yup," Kaze answered, nodding. At the look of surprise on Kiara's face, Kaze shrugged. "Roku seems to like straightforward comments himself. So I asked him if he knew anything about the disappearances and he seemed more than happy to answer me. He said that the disappearances have been happening, not only in this district, but all around the country. In addition, the slaves that disappeared were all those who had some kind of run in with the owners of the house or one of the higher ups. He never mentioned anything about them all being male so when I asked him if he thought that was strange he looked surprised and said he hadn't heard that."

"Wow… Since Roku knows so much, Naoko must know something, right?" Kiara asked, tapping her chin. "I'll ask him outright in the morning."

"Oh, one more thing," Kaze muttered as Kiara waved her hand and Kaze's hair and height shortened again. "Um, Roku and I ran into the Madame and kind of… pissed her off."

"What! Why?" Kiara yelled. "What did you do!?"

"We threw her favorite chair out the sixth story window?" Kaze asked, snickering at the memory. "She was kicking one of the younger slaves! We couldn't just leave the poor girl to her! So we threw the chair out to distract her."

"Great, one more thing to worry about," Kiara groaned, shutting the light off and flopping into her bed.

The next morning, Kaze followed Kiara down to breakfast, glaring angrily at the leash tied around her collar and tugging at her, again, short hair. Roku noticed them first and looked expectantly at Naoko, tugging on the leash on his collar. "Oh, go on then," Naoko laughed, letting the leash go. Roku ran up to Kaze and Kiara, smiling at Kaze as she turned and raised an eyebrow at Kiara.

"Don't get lost," Kiara ordered, letting go of the leash. Kaze hid a scowl and followed Roku to an empty table.

"It seems my Roku has become interested in your Maru," Naoko sighed, joining Kiara at a table.

"Oh?" Kiara asked, surprised. "I didn't realize Roku was bi."

"He didn't either," Naoko laughed. "He was just telling me yesterday how he looks forward to seeing him when you two join us."

"Aw, that's cute," Kiara replied, hiding a snicker. "Anyway, Naoko, I wanted to ask you something. Have you heard anything about the disappearing slaves around here?"

Naoko stared at Kiara in surprise for a moment before smirking. "I guess Roku wasn't wrong about that either," she said, turning to watch Kaze and Roku at the other table for a moment. "Are you two investigating these disappearances?"

"Uh…" Kiara began, hesitant to give too much information away.

"Because we are," Naoko continued, turning her attention back to Kiara. "And any information we have might be better shared than kept to ourselves."

Kiara sighed in relief. "Yes, we are investigating them," she finally answered. "Our employer wants to know where they are going. All we know so far is that all the disappearing slaves are men."

"Oh? I hadn't known that," Naoko replied. "We had heard that they'd been disappearing all over the country, but the majority were from this district. And that all of the slaves had had a run in with a higher-up."

"Yes, um, Maru told me that was what Roku had said," Kiara nodded.

"Hold on, I have to know," Naoko interrupted, holding her hand up to keep Kiara from continuing. "Is Maru really a man?" Kiara snickered silently. "Because he seems way too feminine to be one and I'd like to ease Roku's worries. I don't know why he's worried about it, but he seems to want children or something."

Kiara began laughing, covering her mouth with one hand. "And we tried so hard to hide her gender," she finally choked out. Naoko sighed in relief.

"Oh good," she said, shaking her head. "I'm not just crazy. But I must know, how did you try to hide her gender? I mean her hair is short, but…"

"Oh, it's actually really long," Kiara said, shaking her head. "Almost touching the ground, long. Maybe I should mention that we're witches? I magicked her hair short. I also shortened her height, which she was not happy about."

"Her height?" Naoko asked, blinking in confusion.

"Yup, she's about six inches taller than I am."

Naoko turned to eye Kaze, trying to imagine her taller, but found herself facing an empty table. "Where did they go?" She asked, standing up quickly and turning in a circle to check the entire room.

Kiara stood up also. "I don't know…" She muttered. "This could be a problem…"


	3. Chapter 3

**Here's Chapter 3!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or its characters**

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"Where are we?" He asked, looking around in confusion.

"I don't know," Kaze answered, also looking around. All she could see was that they were in a small brick room with a metal door in one wall. A small window filtered light into the room from high above them. "All I remember was talking to you, then a strange smell. Then we were waking up here."

"Great," Roku muttered, scratching his head and standing up. "We pissed off the Madame and became part of the disappearances."

"What do you think they're going to do to us?" Kaze asked, also standing up. She eyed the window above them, considering climbing to it.

"Who knows," Roku sighed, walking to the door and knocking his finger against it. "This is a fairly sturdy door. The window might be a good way out…" He turned in time to see Kaze waving her finger at a small plant in the dirt floor. A moment later the plant grew into a weaving vine up to the window. "How did you do that?" Roku asked.

"Magic," Kaze replied, beginning to climb the plant. "Nope, the window's too small for either of us to fit through," she called down, jumping off the vine. Roku panicked for a moment, reaching out to catch her, but a small gust of wind slowed her descent as she touched the ground.

"Magic again?" He asked, smirking. She nodded, smiling up at him. "I didn't know you were… well, a magic user," he continued as Kaze walked over to the door.

"There's quite a lot you don't know about me," Kaze replied, touching the door and knowing she could break it with a punch. She paused for a moment, wondering why she knew that, but shrugged it off and aimed a punch at the door.

The door flew off its hinges, bowling over a couple of guards about to open their door. "Wow," Kaze laughed. "I didn't think that would be so easy!" She motioned for Roku to follow and stepped out into a corridor where more guards were racing towards them. "This is ridiculous," Kaze sighed, raising both hands, palms up, towards the sky, successfully raising the ground in front of them to block the guards' way.

"This way," Roku ordered, grabbing Kaze's hand and dragging her along with him down the corridor. "There's a door up there; hopefully it's an exit." The two burst through the door and became momentarily blinded by the sun high in the sky.

"What is this?" Kaze breathed as her eyes adjusted. They had just run into a coliseum. Demons stomped and yelled in their seats, screaming for blood, as people on the stage in the middle attacked each other.

"Hiei!" A man yelled out, waving and grinning. Roku blinked at him, raising his arm hesitantly in greeting. "Bout time you joined us! Who's your friend?"

"Um, Yusuke, what are you doing here?" Roku-or Hiei-asked, frowning at the black haired man. The man's brown eyes focused on Kaze before turning to Hiei. "And what are you and Kuwabara fighting all these people for?"

"Oh, yea, the other house we went to recently sent us here," Yusuke replied, jumping off the stage to stand next to them. He was slightly shorter than Hiei and his short black hair lay flat on his head. "It's like a huge free-for-all and whoever wins gets to go home!"

"And you two just like to fight," Hiei sighed, glaring at the man who chuckled and scratched the back of his head.

"That is true," Yusuke agreed. "Hey, Kuwabara! Hiei's here!"

Another man jumped off the stage to join them, slapping Hiei on the back. "Hey shorty! Long time no see!" The man with curly orange hair and small beady eyes was only a few inches taller than Hiei, but Hiei still seemed to take offense to the nickname pushing Kuwabara roughly away. "Where's Kurama?" Kuwabara asked, looking around.

"He's still at the house we were at," Hiei sighed, still frowning at the man.

"So she was a guy!" Kaze yelled out triumphantly. "I knew it!"

"Hey, who are you?" Kuwabara asked, picking Kaze up like she weighed nothing. She realized then that she still looked like Maru and growled at the spell. She couldn't break it herself, but she hoped it was almost at the end of its time limit.

"Let me go," Kaze growled at the man, turning dark eyes on him. He laughed as if she was a tiny dog barking at him and she found herself irritated at the treatment. "Ugh, this body is getting annoying," she groaned, struggling against Kuwabara's hold on her shirt collar.

"Body?" Hiei asked, turning to Kaze. Kaze simply sighed in response and sent a jolt of electricity at Kuwabara, landing gracefully on her feet when he let go with a yelp of pain. Hiei grinned at her. "I knew I liked you," he chuckled, patting her head. She growled again.

"Watch out," Yusuke said calmly, dodging to the side. Hiei and Kaze darted away from each other as a large demon was flung at them. "Looks like they want our attention again," Yusuke said, snickering.

"I think we should give it to them," Kaze replied, flipping her steadily-growing hair back and popping her fingers. She clapped her hands together and spread them out, a shining bow growing between them and, once it was made, snapped her fingers to create an arrow.

"Witch," Yusuke noted, nodding his approval. "I like it." Kaze grinned, aiming the bow at a demon headed their way and shooting the arrow. It hit square on its chest and it burst into pieces. The four of them jumped onto the stage, Kaze shooting figures, Yusuke choosing to punch them, and Hiei and Kuwabara cutting them down with their respective swords until the last figure dropped, unconscious, to the ground.

"Well… That was simple," Kaze sighed, the bow disappearing. She pulled an elastic out of her pocket and pulled her hair, back to its full length and usual color, back out of her face and adjusted the now too short jeans before snapping her fingers and changing her clothes to her preferred black jeans, black boots, black tank top, and black zippered jacket.

"Hey, you're a girl!" Kuwabara exclaimed, pointing at Kaze.

"Yea… You are a girl," Hiei mumbled, staring at the suddenly taller Kaze in front of him.

"Ah, yes," Kaze replied clearing her throat. "I am Kami Kaze and my friend is Kawa Kiara. It is nice to meet you… Hiei." She smirked at the man who scratched his head sheepishly.

"Kaze-sama!" A voice yelled out. Kaze turned to see Kiara running down the stairs on one side of the stadium, followed by Naoko.

"It seems we have a female in our arena," a different voice rang out, as if amplified by a speaker. Kaze and the others turned around to see a small woman standing opposite them. "We don't take to kindly to women crashing my party."

"Your party?" Kaze scoffed, a staff appearing beside her. Her staff was a dark red color and slick like metal with a small black ball floating in the middle of a hoop at the top. Around the base were symbols representing elements: a small fire for fire, three wavy lines for wind, a wave for water, a sun and moon combined for light, a tree for earth, and a person for the human element.

"You will have to be punished, girl," the woman said as a group of men jumped out of the seats and onto the stage.

"Get down," Kaze ordered. Without question, the three men around her dropped to the ground and in the stands Kiara pulled Naoko down with her. Kaze raised the staff above her head and twirled it in a circle. The men running towards them were all flung backwards into the seats as a huge gust of wind swirled around Kaze. Kiara jumped over the separating wall and ran towards the woman, catching her off guard and handcuffing her.

"Our employer wants her alive," Kiara reminded Kaze when she started to advance. Kaze stopped and sighed, sending her staff away again. "C'mon, we're done here," Kiara continued, heaving the woman over her shoulder.

"Hey," Kaze called to her. Kiara stopped and turned to her friend. "I was right about Naoko."

"I still don't believe it," Kiara frowned back. "She's so pretty."

"Definitely a dude," Kaze said, nodding.

"Who's Naoko?" Kuwabara asked as he, Yusuke and Hiei all stood up and were joined by Naoko.

"That was my name at the house," Naoko sighed, gathering his dress around him.

"Whoa, Kurama, you make a really pretty girl," Yusuke laughed, thumping Naoko on the back. "I knew you were feminine, but makeup? And a dress? That's just too much!"

"Told ya," Kaze gloated, only to be met with an eye roll from Kiara. "Hey, it's not my fault you didn't believe me!"

"So you're Kurama?" Kiara asked, turning to Naoko. He nodded, smiling gently at her.

"Do you usually dress in drag?" Kaze asked bluntly, putting her hands behind her head. Hiei snorted out a laugh before he hid it behind his hand, turning his head away as Kurama hung his head in shame.

"Not usually," Kurama sighed, shaking his dress. "I had to borrow this dress from Kuwabara's sister and the makeup from Yusuke's girlfriend."

Kaze ignored Yusuke yelling out "she's not my girlfriend!" and held out her hand. "Well, it was nice to meet you, Kuruma. I hope that the next time we meet it is under more… normal circumstances," She said, smiling up at the man. He shook her hand, nodding in agreement. "We must go and deliver this woman to our employer; and I'm sure whoever employed you to investigate will be expecting a report also."

With that, Kiara and Kaze disappeared in a puff of smoke as the boys went their own way.


	4. Chapter 4

**Here's the beginning of the main adventure of the story! Kurama's working as a waiter at a cafe.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or its characters**

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"Y'know, that Hiei was kind of cute," Kiara said a few days later as they ate at a small coffee shop in their town.

"Oh, shut up," Kaze sighed. "We'll never see them again, so give it a rest."

"You should have gotten his number," Kiara taunted for the tenth time that day, sipping her tea.

"Yea, I get it," Kaze sighed again, dropping her head onto the table.

"Sorry about the wait, miss," a soft voice said, setting Kaze's chai latte on the table.

Kaze lifted her head to thank the man and noticed bright green eyes and long red hair. "Uh, Kurama?" She asked, staring hard at the man. He blinked at her in surprise.

"Ah, Kiara and Kaze!" He said, smiling happily at them. "I knew I recognized you two!"

A few hours later, Kurama clocked out of his shift and joined Kaze and Kiara across the road at a restaurant, three other men joining them. "How did your employer like your gift?" Yusuke asked, grinning at the two girls.

"He was very impressed and gave us a bonus," Kaze replied after ordering. "Now Kiara's planning to drag me all over the country to find leads on a woman."

"What woman?" Kurama asked gently. "Maybe we could help."

"She's a witch," Kiara replied. "She's got long dark hair and silver eyes. Other than that and that she can fly I don't know much. I've only seen her once."

"I've never seen her," Kaze said when Kurama turned to her. Kiara frowned at the table at this before turning her attention to Kaze's soda. A moment later the soda tipped over and spilled onto Kaze's leg. "Ah! I'll be right back," she sighed after picking the soda up and wiping down the table. She walked carefully to the restroom.

As soon as Kaze was out of earshot, Kiara waved for the four boys to lean in. "She's seen this witch, but the reason I need to find her is because she's erased Kaze's memories," Kaze explained quickly, watching the corridor to the restroom. "Because her memories are erased, Kaze doesn't remember anything about our life before four years ago, the last time we ran into her. The problem is, Kaze's seen her three times in the past and they were in a completely different dimension."

"A different dimension?" Kurama asked, confused.

"Lost her memories?" Hiei asked instead.

"What did you do before this?" Yusuke and Kuwabara asked.

"I'd like to explain all this to you, but the last time I tried to talk about this around her, she got a huge headache that made her pass out," Kiara sighed. "I can't even try to force her mind to remember because that happens every time. If you have any information on how to get her memories back, anything at all, it would be a huge help. We became witches so I could try to find a spell or a potion or something that would help, but so far nothing's been working."

"Being a witch will give you some pretty strong allies," Kurama said, nodding. "Many witches will only talk to other witches. Let me check some files and I'll get back to you. Are you going to stay in this town for a while?"

"We can," Kiara replied, sensing Kaze getting closer. "Kaze-sama doesn't want to move anyway." She sat up quickly, motioning for the others to do so also, just before Kaze appeared in the corridor.

"Did you guys say mean things about me?" Kaze joked, sliding in the booth next to Kiara. "I know there's a lot to talk about, but try to refrain, please." Yusuke grinned.

"Yea, she was telling us about all of your embarrassing secrets," he said from across from her, knowing he was far enough away that she couldn't kick him under the table.

"Oh no!" Kaze fake-gasped. "And she knows all the good ones too!"

The waiter brought their food just then and Kurama ate silently, watching Kiara and Kaze react to each other. The other three boys watched in awe as Kaze inhaled four plates of food and still asked for dessert. "Are you okay, Kaze-sama?" Kiara asked, watching Kaze eat the chocolate cake the waiter put in front of her.

"I've been really hungry lately," Kaze replied once the plate was clean. She turned to Kiara with dark eyes and an apologetic smile. "Sorry, I just can't help it. I crave food."

Kiara nodded in understanding, worried about Kaze's eyes. "Um, try a rare steak," Kiara suggested. "If you're still hungry, of course." She waved over the waiter and ordered Kaze the steak and watched as she ate it, her eyes turning greener with every bite.

"That did the trick!" Kaze sighed, stacking her empty plates up. "I feel much better now."

"That… was a lot of food," Yusuke gagged once Kiara had paid and they left the restaurant.

"It was kind of impressive," Kuwabara admitted.

"She doesn't usually eat so much," Kiara laughed. "It only happens every once in a while."

"What happens?" Hiei asked, turning red eyes on her. Kiara froze before shaking her head.

"Just her getting so hungry," Kiara said, shrugging. "Anyway, if you would check that thing for me, I'd really appreciate it," Kiara continued, turning to Kurama.

"Of course," Kuruma said. "If I find anything I'll let you know."

After about a week Kiara and Kaze were sitting in the coffee shop Kurama worked at when Kurama placed some folders on their table. "I didn't find much," he began, pulling a chair up to their table and joining them. "However, what I did find was pretty specific. There are only three accounts in the files I have access to that describe a female using magic associated with what you described to me."

"Wow…" Kiara muttered, flipping through one of the folders' contents.

"It's as detailed as I could get," Kurama said apologetically. "My sources are the best ones there are, so if this is all that's available there-"

"That means for others she wouldn't exist," Kiara muttered, nodding. "Thank you, seriously."

"Where does it say the last one was seen?" Kaze asked, holding out her hand for the folders. Kiara hesitated only for a moment before handing it to Kaze. She began flipping through the folders, noting that there weren't any pictures in any of them.

"A couple weeks ago, I think," Kiara replied. "In Florida."

"Then that's where we go until we can determine a pattern," Kaze stated with finality.

"May I join you?" Kurama asked as Kaze stood up. Kiara turned to Kurama, surprised. "No doubt the others will want to also," Kurama continued, tilting his head to the side. "They seem to have taken a liking to you two."

"We appreciate it," Kaze began, unsure.

"Besides, we're all tired of this city," Kurama interrupted.

"Are you sure?" Kiara asked, standing up as Kaze paid for their drinks. "We don't know what will happen, or even which one is the right one."

As Kiara continued to try to convince Kurama that he and the others didn't need to go with them, Kaze sat back down with a sigh and began flipping through the files. At one file she burst out laughing and set it to the side, startling Kiara and Kurama. "What's so funny, Kaze-chan?" Kurama asked gently, picking the discarded file up and opening it.

"That one is Kia and I," Kaze replied, still chuckling.

"It was two years ago," Kurama read. "Two witches, violent in nature, broke into a state library and removed three banned books from the premise. At large." Kiara began laughing also. "Wow, that's a heavily guarded library," Kurama whistled, impressed. "What books did you take?"

"Some spell books we memorized a week after," Kiara replied.

"And have since made copies of," Kaze added. "We could probably return those."

"We'll do that on our way," Kiara replied, taking the file from Kurama and willing fire into existence to set it ablaze. "And, again, you guys don't need to come with us," she continued to Kurama.

"But we want to help," Kurama said. "You haven't been able to catch her yourselves; maybe you just need different perspectives." Kaze sighed again and went back to organizing the files.

After about ten more minutes of Kiara and Kurama politely arguing with each other, Kaze cleared her throat. "There doesn't seem to be a pattern in this witch's movements," she said, setting the files down in an orderly stack. "The latest information places someone of our description in Florida two weeks ago. Right before that, we have information from Washinton, four weeks ago. A week before that, however, there was one in New Mexico. So unless this witch is simply moving from one place to another, I don't know what she is trying to do."

"Are all the sightings in this country?" Kurama asked.

"Seems like it," Kaze replied. "There were some on the border of Canada, but within U.S. lines."

"I wonder why," Kiara mused, tapping her lip with her forefinger.

"Anyway, if you're joining us, everyone should be at the train station tomorrow, 8AM," Kaze ordered, standing up again and picking up the files. "If you aren't all there at 8, we will assume you decided not to come and leave without you."

"But, Kaze-sama-" Kiara began to protest, but Kaze held up her hand, nodding to Kurama and leaving the building. Kiara pouted, but followed without arguing anymore.


	5. Chapter 5

**They finally get on the train to go out. This was mostly to explain the magic the girls have. If you remember, this is only one thing they can do, but Kaze doesn't remember, so keep that in mind over the next couple of chapters.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or its characters.**

* * *

The next morning, Kaze and Kiara were yawning at the station, their few bags sitting around them as they waited for their train. "Think they'll come?" Kiara asked, checking her watch. It was 7:55. Kaze shrugged, too groggy to answer. At 7:59 Kurama led Kuwabara, Yusuke, and Hiei into the station. Kuwabara was yawning loudly and Yusuke was rubbing his eyes, but Hiei and Kurama looked well rested.

"Morning people," Kaze grunted, frowning at the two.

"Good morning!" Kurama replied, pretending to mistake her comment for a greeting. "Has our train arrived yet?"

"Not yet," Kiara replied, handing the four their tickets. "You didn't have to come," she tried again, eyeing the four boys.

"We know that," Yusuke replied. "But this trip sounds sort of exciting."

"Besides, we can't just let two defenseless girls go off all on their own," Kuwabara continued, grinning at the two. Kaze's eye twitched in annoyance and Kuwabara's eyebrows began burning off. "Ow, ow, ow!" He yelled as they burned. "Hiei! Stop it!"

"I'm not doing that, idiot," Hiei sighed as the train pulled up. He bent down and picked up one of Kaze's three bags, throwing it and his own bag over his shoulder. "She's a witch, it's magic, stupid." Kaze frowned at Kuwabara one more time before grabbing her other bags and following Hiei onto the train.

"So what other things can you do?" Yusuke asked, taking a seat on the train across from Kaze and Kiara. Hiei ignored them, even though he was sitting next to Kaze, and chose instead to stare out the window with his chin propped up on his hand. Kuwabara and Kurama sat on either side of Yusuke.

"Just about anything," Kaze replied. "We're both strong and have control over each of the elements. We each can control a couple better than the others, but if we needed to we could manipulate just about anything."

"I noticed your staff before," Kurama began, focusing on Kaze. "It had symbols at the bottom that represented things I didn't quite recognize."

"Ah, yes, it's the same on mine," Kiara replied, realizing that Kaze was yawning too largely to answer. She willed her staff into existence, a light green, wood-like color but smooth like metal with a white ball floating at the top. She flipped it upside down and showed the symbols to the others. "This one here," she began, pointing to the three waving lines, "represent wind. We can control the wind with ease to send air currents to either push or cut or even carry things. Both of us have an even amount of control over that one, which is nice because we can both land softly on our feet with that one and catch people in a pocket of air. We could even fly if we wanted, but neither of us have any reason for that on a day-to-day basis."

"You can fly and you don't use it?" Kuwabara asked in shock. "I'd totally fly all over the place!"

"Well, it is kind of nice to just fly somewhere without needing to ride the train or anything," Kaze admitted, leaning back.

"This one here is water," Kiara continued, pointing to the wave-looking symbol. "With this we can create bubbles in the water and use water is battle as whips or whatever we'd like. We can carry ourselves across large bodies of water, if we don't want to fly over them, of course. I can control that one much better than Kaze can, but she can still do the basics."

"Water doesn't listen to me so well, but Kiara can make it do anything she wants it to," Kaze added, sitting up slightly.

"This next one," Kiara continued, pointing to a small flame, "represents fire."

"That's my specialty," Kaze said, grinning. Hiei turned a little to listen better, but didn't look at Kaze. "I, of course, can manipulate fire to do whatever I'd like to do. Fire is to me like water is to Kiara, which is good because we can control each separately."

"I can't use fire very well at all," Kiara admitted. "I can do the basic things like starting a fire and, as long as it's extremely small, I can control it well." Kiara turned back to her staff and pointed out the tree. "This one represents earth," she stated. "This one is a little confusing as to what we can do with it."

"Kiara can control plants while I'm better with rock," Kaze jumped in. Kiara nodded and pointed to a small rosebud at the end of their compartment. The rosebud, which was red, began to bleed its color into the water it was in until it was pure white. Within moments, it had opened its petals and grown twice its size.

"Nice," Kurama nodded approvingly. "But can you turn it into a weapon?"

"Of course, that's basic," Kiara laughed.

"Alright, now you," Kuwabara said, turning to Kaze, who sighed, but turned to face the window. She opened her hand and made a movement like she was lifting something. A rock about the size of her hand floated outside the train window. She closed her fist then and the rock tightened, as if being squeezed until, after a moment, Kaze let her hand relax and showed the rock was now compressed to resemble a rose.

"Open the window," Kiara told Hiei, who glared at her, but did as he was asked. Kaze pulled the rock into the car and Hiei shut the window again, annoyed at the wind.

"That is extremely intricate," Kurama breathed, holding the rose. He held it out for the other men to see as Kaze leaned back comfortably.

"Now for the next one," Kiara continued when Yusuke had taken the rock rose and slipped it in his bag. "This one is light," she pointed to the sun and moon combination. "This one is split between the two of us also. I can control the light part of this element while Kaze can control the dark side."

"And together we can create vacuums of sort," Kaze continue. "Ah, speaking of which, do you want those books out? We'll be going through the town later tonight."

"Yea, you might as well take them out now," Kiara agreed, handing Kaze her small purse. Kaze reached inside, searching for the books, and the boys were surprised to see her arm disappear into the small clutch bag.

"How…" Yusuke mumbled, watching in shock.

"This is the vacuum we were talking about," Kiara explained. "It's really a constant kind of shadow-stepping, which Kaze is best at, with illusion placed inside in case someone gets hold of it, which is my specialty. I can make people see what I want them to by manipulating the light around them, and Kaze can move someone or something instantly from one place to another by moving through the shadows."

"I'm familiar with shadow-stepping," Hiei spoke up. "I've tried it myself, but it doesn't work so well for me."

"It's a pretty specific kind of ability," Kaze mumbled, still trying to find the books. "Ah, here they are." She pulled three large, leather books out, each looking worn and tattered.

"The last element is the human element," Kiara stated after the boys had looked over the books in wonder. "This means we can change the physical appearances of people. Not only that but we can make a person do our bidding."

"That part's the scary part," Kaze mentioned, shaking her head. We can make someone do just about anything we wish them to do, but it makes me feel like a monster when I try to do so." Katy yawned and yanked a pillow and blanket out of her bag. "Now, if you don't have any more questions, I would like to catch a few more hours of sleep before we get to the city with that library."

"I would like to know more about your first break in of that library," Kurama mentioned as Kaze curled up in her seat. Kaze sighed, and waved at Kiara for her to answer.

"As you should know, the library is extremely well guarded," Kiara began. "But that's not really much of a match for two highly volatile witches. We'd heard there were some very rare spell books in the library and knew that we should break in and take them."

"What kinds of spells were in the book?" Yusuke asked.

"They included the spells we use to change our appearances," Kiara replied. "The ones that helped us during our undercover mission where we met you and Hiei." Hiei turned his head slightly to acknowledge that he heard his name, but turned away after a moment, losing interest again.

The rest of the train ride continued with Yusuke and Kuwabara convincing Kiara to show them her magic, clapping politely after every display before asking for more. Finally the train pulled into their stop and Kiara shook Kaze awake, who dragged herself off the train sleepily, stuffing her pillow and blanket into her bag without caring who saw.

"Kaze-sama, you need to be more careful about your magic," Kiara chastised, tapping Kaze.

"Yea, yea, I know," Kaze sighed, stretching. She stumbled a bit in her boots as she stretched before following Kaze out of the station and to the center of the town.

"Do you remember how we got there last time?" Kiara asked Kaze, searching for a hotel to stay for the night. Kaze watched as the boys followed warily, not usually ones for long travels.

"Yea, I do," Kaze replied, pausing to allow the boys to catch up. "We can return it tonight and be on our way in the morning without a problem."

Kiara found a hotel finally and paid for their night with two rooms, leading the boys up to their floor and bidding them goodnight as the lights outside began turning on in the dark of the night.


	6. Chapter 6

**Just a little side adventure of the girls returning a book they "borrowed". And Kaze has a dream that makes her mad.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or its characters.**

* * *

"Are we going now?" Kiara asked Kaze after an hour of sitting in the dark in their room.

"Not yet, they're still awake," Kaze whispered back, her ear pressed up against the door. Kiara sighed, rolling her eyes at the display and wishing Kaze would just let her do the listening. She, since she had her memories, could also hear the boys moving around, but knew that she had to be patient and pretend that she couldn't. Otherwise Kaze could faint from memory over-stimulation. She was getting tired of pretending though.

The moments passed slowly until Kiara was sure the boys had finally lain down at least, even if they were still awake. "How about now?" Kiara whispered. Kaze was silent for another moment before nodding quietly, opening the window carefully and leading the way outside.

The two girls jumped down to the ground, both looking up to the window quickly as they both heard a very silent movement from the boys' room, something too quiet for people to normally hear that Kaze didn't realize she'd reacted to until they were far away. They found the entrance to the small bookstore that was the cover of the vault they'd stolen the books from and slipped in through the chimney, both crawling down carefully, using the wind to keep them from dropping straight down. Kiara peeked out first and looked around carefully before dropping onto the ground and waving Kaze in. The two slipped through the shelves, being watchful of any guards, and found the wall that covered the real entrance to the library.

Kiara began watching as Kaze took over at the wall. She ran her fingers along the bricks until she found the loose one. Instead of pulling that one out, she tapped two to the left and dug her fingernails under that one, pulling it out and reaching in for the button. The door slid open silently and the girls slipped in after Kaze put the brick back in its place. "You remember how to get out, right?" Kiara breathed, following Kaze down the steps. Kaze nodded, knowing without understanding why that Kiara could see her in the pitch black of the stairway. Eventually they reached the bottom, Kiara tapping Kaze's shoulder to prevent her from nearly running into the wall, and they turned into the corridor at the bottom.

Kiara grabbed Kaze's arm and led her down the hallway, able to see better than Kaze, stopping only when they reached the door at the end. Kaze took over again, pulling a bobby pin out of her pony tail and kneeling down by the lock that was glowing from the light from the other side. Within moments, the door was unlocked and slid open gently, allowing both girls access inside.

"It's quiet," Kaze whispered to Kiara, leading the way to where they'd taken the books from years ago. Kiara agreed, silently marveling at how good Kaze's memory could be when it's not being wiped by a witch. And how bad she was at remember what she had for breakfast, even before the witch started messing with her mind. The two reached the shelf and Kaze pulled the books out of her small bag strapped to her leg and jumped up to the shelf they'd been taken from.

The books were slipped back into the shelf and Kaze had dropped down next to Kiara, before someone finally spotted them. "Intruders!" The demon yelled, dropping the books it was holding to point at Kaze and Kiara. They sighed and ran at the demon, both stepping on its face to get some air, jumping to the top of the bookshelf and running across. They jumped gaps and dodged bullets being aimed at them, both familiar with that kind of feeling after years of running across rooftops. They reached the escape hatch that shot straight up and out the second chimney in the roof. Kiara jumped first, converting energy to her legs and jumping up, using some air to boost herself and not raise questions from Kaze later, and Kaze followed, finding she didn't have to use the air currents to send her upwards.

They reached the outside, surprised it was still so quiet outside even though it had been chaos inside the library. They ran back to the hotel and slipped through the window to their room.

"How was your raid?" Hiei asked, he and Kurama sitting on the girls' beds and flicking the light on. Kiara jumped in surprise, having not sensed any danger when she'd jumped in and had dropped her guard in response.

"It was good," Kaze replied, slipping her jacket off. "Very successful."

"So you were able to return the books you'd borrowed?" Kurama asked, covering Hiei's eyes teasingly when Kaze took her shirt off and dressed instead in a delicate nightgown. Hiei growled, swiping at Kurama's hand and refusing to admit that he'd been embarrassed by Kaze changing in front of them.

"Yes we were," Kiara replied, not yet changing even as Kaze pulled her pants off from underneath her nightgown, folding her clothes and stuffing them into a laundry bag. "We even almost got out without being spotted."

"I wish we'd been able to go with you," Kurama sighed, standing up and shooing Hiei out of the room. "We were waiting in case you two were late and we'd have to follow you, but you seemed to have everything under control since that only took a few minutes. So, we'll see you in the morning. Have a good night." Hiei grumbled at Kurama again, but allowed himself to be dragged away.

"Why did you decide to change in front of them?" Kiara asked Kaze suddenly, finally changing into her own pajamas.

"Because neither of them is interested in me," Kaze told her, shrugging. "Why should I be embarrassed about my body in front of people who aren't interested?"

"Hiei liked you, if I remember correctly," Kiara grumbled.

"As a guy, he did," Kaze told her. "He definitely looks like he's lost his interest now that he's found out I'm a woman."

"I think you want him to be interested," Kiara teased. Kaze suddenly appeared next to her, putting her hand over Kiara's mouth, looking frantic.

"Sh, I think he can hear us," Kaze whispered to her, looking carefully at the wall that divided the two rooms. After a moment, both girls burst out laughing, Kaze pretending she was kidding and Kiara out of relief that no one was about to attack them from the way Kaze had freaked out. They went to bed not too long after, both dropping off into a deep sleep.

The woman floated up through the ground in front of them. Kaze gasped, instantly recognizing the woman, but unsure of why. Kiara was next to her, as she always was, and she looked as surprised as Kaze was. The woman frowned angrily at Kaze, raising her hand threateningly. Kiara snarled and threw herself at the woman, but she was brushed aside like an annoying bug.

"Kiara!" Kaze shouted as Kaze flew through the air and crashed through a wall near them.

"You still insist on being happy," the woman hissed at Kaze, pulling her attention to her again. "I take your memories time and again, yet you're still happy! I've tried to make you suffer like I have… But WHY ARE YOU STILL HAPPY?!" Kaze took a step back, afraid but not willing to leave with Kiara out of commission close by.

"I don't know what you're talking about!" Kaze insisted, watching the woman's hand warily as she pointed it to Kaze again.

"I'm going to keep making sure you aren't happy," the woman whispered. "Say goodbye to your happiness, girl." Kaze felt her head explode in pain and let out a scream of terror, her memories slipping from her mind as the woman laughed in front of her.

"Kaze, Kaze!" Kiara shouted, shaking Kaze as her friend screamed. Kaze instantly stopped screaming as she felt another set of hands on her arms, gasping in fear and looking around with wide green eyes. "Are you okay?" Kiara asked, sitting on Kaze's bed and watching her worriedly.

"What happened?" Yusuke asked, he and Kuwabara joining Kurama, who was sitting next to Kaze also, and Hiei, who was standing at the foot of the bed, in the girls' room.

"She seemed to be having a nightmare," Kurama explained, his hands on Kaze's arm soothingly.

"Was it the same dream?" Kiara asked, unknowingly setting Kaze off.

"Yes, it was the same type of dream," Kaze growled, turning angry black eyes on Kiara, startling her friend. "The exact same dream you refused to look at for me ever since I started having it!" Her voice rose until she was shouting at Kiara. Kaze shook their hands off and grabbed Kiara angrily, throwing her against the wall.


	7. Chapter 7

**I repeated the sentence from the previous chapter in case I wanted to leave a cliffhanger. I decided not to.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or its characters.**

* * *

"Yes, it was the same type of dream," Kaze growled, turning angry black eyes on Kiara, startling her friend. "The exact same dream you refused to look at for me ever since I started having it!" Her voice rose until she was shouting at Kiara. Kaze shook their hands off and grabbed Kiara angrily, throwing her against the wall. "YOU KEEP MAKING ME DEAL WITH IT MYSELF!" Kiara stood slowly, afraid Kaze was going to attack again and, when she didn't, she looked at her friend warily.

"I don't know what you want me to do," Kiara began slowly, jumping when Kaze threw the side table at her.

"YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHAT I WANT YOU TO DO! TELL ME WHAT'S HAPPENING!" Kaze screamed at her, fury forcing her to forget where she was. "Why do I keep dreaming about all these people I don't know? Who is that woman? WHAT THE HELL IS THE POINT OF HAVING A BAKU FOR A BEST FRIEND IF YOU WON'T TAKE THESE DAMN DREAMS AWAY!" Kaze picked up the bed like it was nothing and threw it at Kiara also, not surprised that Kiara caught it easily.

"I can't take memories away!" Kiara shouted back, finally past the point of being gentle. "You keep having these dreams because their memories! Just REMEMBER ALREADY!" In response to Kaze's anger, Kiara's anger rose quickly and she threw the bed back at Kaze, ignoring the boys staring open-mouthed at the two tossing the heavy bed around like it was a beach ball.

Kaze caught the bed and was glaring at Kiara, about to open her mouth to argue again, when suddenly she felt a sharp pain in her head and she fell to the ground, unconscious. "Ugh, finally," Kiara sighed, picking the bed up off of Kaze, who had become trapped under it when she fainted, and setting it back where it was originally. She picked Kaze up and set her on the bed, sitting down next to her with a sigh.

"What is a baku?" Kuwabara asked after a moment.

"A dream eater," Kiara replied, standing up and picking up the side table with ease, setting it down next to the bed again also.

"And you're one?" Kurama asked.

"I am," Kiara replied, nodding and staring at the wall she'd been thrown into with a sigh. It had been dented by her body when Kaze had thrown her into it and Kiara felt a bruise start on her back. "Ow."

"When did you both get so strong?" Yusuke asked.

"About ten years ago when we started training," Kiara answered. "We've just been increasing our strength since, at least until the first time."

"The first time she lost her memories?" Hiei asked, remembering the first time they'd all had a conversation and Kiara had told them about Kaze.

"Right," Kiara said, nodding. "Before the first time we were ninja."

"Ninja?" Yusuke exclaimed. "That's exciting! What'd you do?"

"That doesn't explain your strength," Kurama pointed out, slowly sitting next to Kiara on the bed after she settled down again.

"Right, well, Kaze was always kind of strong," Kiara began, nodding. "She was trained before I was with weights that she carried around everywhere. I started strength training at 13 when we met our teacher. We can move our energy to our arms to lift things and increase our strength. Kaze and I did this so often that it became second nature. Except Kaze is naturally strong anyway, so she uses the energy to keep herself from falling into the ground while she's wearing her weights or hitting things too hard when she'd trying to use her strength."

"How much weight did she usually wear?" Yusuke asked, lifting one of Kaze's arms only to find that she couldn't.

"Um, last time I think it was… four thousand pounds?" Kiara said slowly, tapping her chin. "I keep the weights in her clothes so she doesn't get weak while we're unable to train, so she still uses her chakra constantly."

"Chakra is like chi?" Yusuke asked, just to make sure. Kiara nodded. "Okay, so that explains why you're both strong and so fast. Now, why did she call you a baku?"

"Because before this last time I'd become a baku," Kiara replied. "I'd gotten depressed and opened myself up for a baku to switch places with me. However, I wasn't completely taken over so I don't need dreams to survive, but sometimes I crave it like candy. Or mashed potatoes. Or chocolate. Speaking of which, I need some chocolate before we leave."

Kaze groaned and sat up, holding her head. "Kiara, what happened?" Kaze asked, grumbling about her headache.

"You had a nightmare and attacked me," Kiara told her.

"Why did I attack you?" Kaze asked, frowning and ignoring the mess in the room.

"I don't know. Let's get out of here. I need some chocolate," Kiara replied, shrugging and standing up. They gathered their things up, the boys watching in confusion at how normal they both seemed to be being.

The boys followed Kiara and Kaze out of the building, Kaze stopping to pay to fix the room she knew she and Kiara had torn up, and walked to the train the purchase their tickets to the next town they wanted to stop in.

"Where are we going now?" Yusuke asked, not liking that he wasn't leading the group like he usually did.

"We have to stop somewhere in Georgia," Kiara told him. "We met someone a while back when we first went into hiding after the election that owes us some information."

"Who is this person?" Kurama asked.

"His name's Watanuki," Kaze spoke up, settling into her seat. "And he's the best person to pick up information from around the world. Everyone goes to see him." With that, she curled up into a ball, hugging her pillow, and fell asleep quickly.

The train crossed the country quickly and the group reached Georgia by nightfall. Kiara led the way out of the station and looked around in confusion. "I can't remember which way we have to go," she admitted to Kaze, shrugging.

"We have to go to the next town over, remember?" Kaze told her, shouldering her bag. "It's only about seven, we could get there before nine if we go now." Kiara nodded in agreement and the boys sighed, shouldering their own bags and following as they began towards the next town.

"It's really not that far," Kiara assured them. "The train just doesn't go into that town specifically. And we should only be here a day before we can move on."

"We just need to make sure we're going in the right direction before we continue on to Florida," Kaze spoke up, leading the way on the path through the small stretch of woods between the towns.

The group makes their way through the woods until they hit an open field. "I thought you said it was just through here," Yusuke gasped, tired from the mostly uphill climb.

"It is," Kaze said, surprised. She and Kiara could see the town in front of them without a problem and she didn't know why the boys couldn't.

"Oh, remember, it's got a spell over it," Kiara suddenly said, hitting her forehead with the palm of her hand. "We've got to pull them in since they can't see it." With that she grabbed Yusuke's and Kurama's arms, dragging them towards the town and pulling them, with some resistance, into and finally through the barrier as Kaze followed with Kuwabara and Hiei. They each dropped their arms as soon as they were through, Kurama being the only one of the boys who didn't look like he minded.

"Alright, we need to go down this road, then to the right, before we reach it," Kaze said, leading the way in the dark to the shop they were looking for. A spirit tried to climb on Kaze's leg, but she shot it a death glare and it flopped away with a yipping sound.

"What was that?" Yusuke asked, each of the boys having seen the spirit.

"It was a blob spirit," Kaze explained. "I'm not sure what it wanted, but it certainly didn't need to be crawling on me. You'll see quite a few here, but they're fairly harmless."

The group reached the shop and walked through the gate, Kaze and Kiara shivering slightly at the barrier they passed through to reach the house. "We went through something," Kuwabara said, shuddering himself.

"This shop is in a different dimension," Kiara told him. "In order to reach it you have to go through the barrier separating the two dimensions. Thankfully it recognizes that we all need it, otherwise it might have hidden from us."

"I'm a little confused," Yusuke said. Hiei sighed, but was unwilling to try to explain as Kurama reiterated what Kiara had said, dumbing it down enough until Yusuke and Kuwabara both understood the concept.

Maru and Moro greeted the group at the front door and invited them inside. "Watanuki has been expecting you two!" They said. Both girls were small and childlike with long hair. They both looked like the other and spoke either at the same time or finished each other's sentences. "He said you could all stay in the guest rooms and he'll talk to you in the morning about your wish."

"Perfect, we'll expect him bright and early," Kaze said, her tone slightly threatening.

"Kaze sounds mad!" The two girls sang, giggling, before running off.

Kiara showed the boys their rooms and bid them goodnight before following Kaze into their room and falling asleep.


	8. Chapter 8

**Kaze's having her usual issue that we haven't seen in a while.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho, XXX Holic, or their characters.**

* * *

Kaze awoke the next morning in a cold sweat, shaking and unsure where she was. She looked around frantically until her brain started working again and she remembered that she was in Watanuki's house. She shook her head to rid herself of the image of a boy with dog ears on his head, knowing Kiara wouldn't be able to help her anyway but unsure as to why she thought Kiara could help at all, and stumbled out of the room to the outside porch. The sun was bright and it was warm, but not hot, so Kaze sat down on the porch and stretched in the sun.

Maru and Moro joined Kaze not too long later and curled up next to her, nearly purring in the warmth like cats, as Kaze dozed off. Kiara found Kaze about an hour later slumped against one of the posts and laughed, her worry about waking up without Kaze in the room disappearing. "Kaze-sama, you have to wake up now," Kiara called, shaking Kaze until she startled awake. "Mokona wants to know if you'd like some sake."

"No," Kaze yawned, stretching. "I'll just fall asleep again and won't be able to enjoy the buzz. Is Watanuki awake yet?"

"Yea, he's cooking breakfast and talking with Kurama," Kiara told her, helping Kaze stand. "Why do you think you're so tired?"

"I dunno," Kaze shrugged, yawning again. "I got enough sleep last night and I didn't have a nightmare or anything, I'm just tired and sluggish."

"Hmm, maybe some food will help you?" Kiara said slowly, knowing what was wrong with Kaze as she looked into Kaze's black eyes. Kaze yawned again and Kiara saw the beginnings of fangs pushing through in her mouth. "You must be hungry; I'll ask if Watanuki has any steak." Kaze nodded, stumbling as she followed Kiara into the dining room.

"Good morning, Kaze-san," Watanuki said. He wore glasses and was tall and lanky. His black hair was still mussed from sleep and his traditional Japanese clothes were wrinkled as if he'd slept in them.

"Good morning, Watanuki," Kaze replied, nodding at the man. "You look the same."

"Living in this dimension really does a number on a person's aging process," Watanuki replied, shrugging. Watanuki still looked as he did when he took over the job of time-space witch from his predecessor and friend, Yuko, about five years earlier. He didn't age in the dimension they were in, the same as Yuko, and so looked the same as when Kaze and Kiara had met him three years earlier. "So I hear you have a wish?" Watanuki continued, taking a cup of sake from the pork-bun looking black creature with long ears and a jewel on its forehead.

"We do," Kiara replied, walking into the room with Kaze's lunch, a medium rare steak and a glass of red wine, and her own, a plate of eggs and biscuits and gravy, with a glass of white wine.

"I really won't be able to enjoy the alcohol, Kiara," Kaze sighed, taking the drink though and taking a sip before nearly inhaling the steak.

"We need information," Kiara continued, ignoring Kaze as she ate. "You know what kind of information and you know very well that we've paid enough for it."

Watanuki stared at the table thoughtfully, trying to think of exactly what he could give that would amount to what the two girls had already paid. "I think I know just what to give you," Watanuki mumbled, standing up. "You both know how to scry, right?"

Kaze nodded, feeling better after eating. "We do," she told him, nodding. "But we can't locate her with the materials we have." Watanuki nodded, not saying anything, and left the room with Maru and Moro following him. Kiara struck up a conversation with Mokona, the pork-bun creature, as Kurama joined the two girls with his own breakfast and Hiei's, directing Yusuke and Kuwabara to the kitchen for theirs when they walked in sleepily.

"Come on, Hiei, join us," Kurama called, setting Hiei's plate down and sitting next to Kiara. Hiei appeared outside the door and walked in grumpily, sitting down and munching on his food, refusing to look at anyone.

"What's with you, grumpy?" Kaze asked him after a moment, frowning at Hiei.

"I don't like stopping when I'm on a mission," Hiei grumbled at her.

"Well, if you have a better idea of how we can find this woman, we're all ears," Kaze snorted. "If you didn't want to come, why did you?" Hiei pointed his fork angrily at Kurama. "Oh, stop being a baby, you could have said no."

"It's not like I forced you to come," Kurama said, waving off Hiei's accusation. "I just gave the better argument and you decided it was a good idea."

"You can leave whenever you'd like," Kiara jumped in, also frowning at Hiei. Hiei grumbled some more but didn't make any move to leave as Watanuki came back into the room.

"Here are a scrying stone and a map," Watanuki said, handing the items to Kiara.

"We have those things," Kaze growled, standing up to see the stone and map. "We can't find her; she can't be found with scrying."

"It's not just any stone," Watanuki defended himself, holding his hands up. "It's wrapped in magic and can find anyone you'd like to find."

"Is this all you'll give us?" Kaze asked Watanuki, unhappy.

"This isn't the only part of our wish, Watanuki," Kiara muttered, still studying the stone. "Is there no way to get information for the other part also?"

"There is a book," Watanuki said, waving Maru and Moro forward. "I don't have it nor do I have any way of getting my hands on it. Not only that but it would cost more than you have to give."

Kaze sighed, backing down, and walked outside to sit on the porch. "I do, however, have the information of its whereabouts," Watanuki said, rolling his eyes at Kaze and motioning for Maru to hand Kiara a very small booklet and Moro to give her another map. "The book can be won in a tournament. The island for the tournament is just off the coast of California, so I suggest you head that way next. The next tournament is in two months."

"If this book can be won in a tournament…" Kiara began slowly, not quite understanding why the statement didn't make sense to her.

"If there's only one book, why hasn't it been won yet?" Kaze spoke up from the porch, leaning against the pole again. "You make it sound like there's only one of these books."

"It hasn't been won because, in every tournament, everyone dies who enters," Watanuki replied, setting Maru and Moro off into chants of "everyone dies! Everyone dies!" as they danced around him.

"Sounds fun," Yusuke said, he and Kuwabara walking back into the room. "So, you two do your magic thing, see if you can find that witch, and we'll head to the island to win this book!"

"Were you not listening?" Kiara asked, frowning at Yusuke. "Everyone dies." Maru and Moro sang and danced again at the statement.

"In stereo," Kaze spoke up, snickering a little as she fell to the porch, too tired to hold herself up anymore.

"Oh, Kaze-sama," Kiara sighed, going to her friend and pulling her up to a standing position. "Here, I'll make you another steak, go sit down." Kaze did as she was told, slumping down at the table.

The boys discussed joining Kiara and Kaze on their new mission as Watanuki watched Kaze worriedly. "Ah, wait, Kohane-chan said she had a gift for you when you came back," Watanuki suddenly said, shooing Maru and Moro away as he went down the hall again. "Here, it's a necklace to help with your sickness," he told Kaze, handing her a small locket. "It should at least help you manage a little longer than normal."

"I'm not sure what you…" Kaze began, furrowing her eyebrows at Watanuki as he put the necklace on her. Her eyes slowly turned green again and her pale skin gained a little more color as her fangs shortened until they returned to their normal size within moments and she blinked in surprise. "Wow, what kind of necklace is this! That's amazing!" She studied the locket only to find it wasn't too interesting, just a small silver locket with a wolf design on it.

"Ooh, that's pretty," Kiara said, walking into the room with Kaze's steak.

Watanuki pulled Kiara aside after she set the plate in front of Kaze. "That's a gift from Kohane for the bear Kaze knitted for her last year," he whispered to Kiara. "She found it at one of her exorcisms and found it helped people control their desires and instincts. I figured it would work for Kaze, even with those… instances you've told me about."

"Thank you," Kiara told him, nodding. "She already looks better."

"It won't make it disappear completely, but it can control it longer than her will can," Watanuki warned as Kaze finished her plate again.

"Alright, we've had our fun," Kaze said, standing up and taking her plate into the kitchen to clean. "We'd love to stay and say hello to Kohane and everyone, but we really should get going. Kiara's been kind of panicking about this woman. And, while I'm not sure what this second part is, it seems important so we should head over."

"I'll get our tickets on the next train headed west," Kiara said.

"I'll go with you," Kurama said, standing quickly and following Kiara out the door.

"So, what exactly are you?" Kuwabara asked, poking Mokona.

"Mokona is Mokona!" The creature replied, holding up a glass of sake.

"It's magical and annoying as hell," Watanuki replied instead, sighing.

"Annoying, annoying!" Maru and Moro sang, dancing around. Hiei grumbled and left the room to stand outside and get away from the children.

When Kiara and Kurama came back and everyone finally left, Watanuki sat down heavily, sighing. "What's wrong?" Mokona asked, seeing that Watanuki looked more tired than he was. "Did you give too much?"

"No, when it comes to those two, I can never give them enough," Watanuki replied, his chest hurting him for a moment. "I wish I could, but I never have just enough."


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9. Cliff hanger!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or its characters**

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Kaze led Kiara and the others through the town and back to the town they had left the day before to catch their train headed west. "How far will this train go?" Kaze asked, sitting down next to Hiei, who was looking fidgety.

"We'll have to catch a different train in Texas," Kiara replied, spreading the map on the floor as the other boys sat down. "Help me with this." She held the stone out to Kaze, who held it for a moment before ripping the string off the end of it. The boys watched as Kaze shut her eyes and held her hand out with the stone in it.

The map and stone both glowed for a moment as the stone began to levitate in Kaze's hand. Kiara shut her eyes in surprise at the brightness of the light when the stone flew at the map, dropping on a part of the map that represented the coast of California. "Looks like we need to go to California for the witch as well as this book," Yusuke said, tapping the map, before jerking his hand back in surprise. "It's hot!" He exclaimed, shaking his hand warily. Kaze opened her eyes and reached slowly to the stone, picking it up even as it sizzled in her hand.

Kiara warily folded the map up, having to wrap her hands in water afterwards to pull the burn out, and helped Kaze sit back down before she passed out, accidently falling against Hiei and startling him. "That is a strong stone," Kiara said in wonder. "She's never passed out after locating something."

"While she's passed out," Kurama began, watching Kaze warily. "This book that we're heading towards, what is it going to do?"

"The second part of our wish is to get back home," Kiara replied. "We had to follow the witch into a different dimension, but our doorway back closed up not long after we got here. We don't have any way of contacting anyone in our original dimension."

"Of course, Kaze doesn't remember, though," Yusuke said. Kiara nodded in response.

"Can you tell us what's wrong with her lately?" Kuwabara asked. "She seems really sluggish and irritable."

"Ah, yes, that's a normal thing," Kiara replied, nodding. "Nothing to worry about, she'll get through it soon enough."

"It seems pretty serious," Kurama insisted as Kaze woke up, stretching.

"What's pretty serious?" She asked, yawning.

"You're lethargy," Kiara replied, sitting next to Kaze and studying her. Kaze's teeth were all a normal size, her canines maybe a tiny bit longer than normal, and her eyes were dark, but still mostly green. "You okay?"

"Yea, I'm good," Kaze replied, shrugging. "Hungry still, but I don't feel like I could eat a cow anymore."

"That's good, at least you aren't falling asleep on me," Kiara sighed. The group spent a few hours talking about their plans for the next couple of days until night fell and they each went to sleep.

The six reached California in three days by train. They had to stop in Texas and spend the night due to a train issue, but were quickly on the next train headed to California and reached the city where the boat was expected to leave from when it was time for the tournament.

"When does the boat head over?" Yusuke asked Kiara, who was studying the booklet Watanuki had given them.

"The first boat leaves in two days," Kiara replied, waving Yusuke and Kuwabara away as they tried to read over her shoulder. "We'll rest up here, grab a few supplies in case there's not much on the island, and I'll send in our registration tonight so we'll have a suite when we get there."

"How large do the teams have to be?" Hiei asked, finally showing some interest in the tournament now that they were close to it.

"They're teams of six," Kiara replied, shooting a worried look at Kaze who was asleep on the couch in their current suite. "We don't need a backup or anything because six is the most on one team. It says that some teams might have much less than six. And once a team member dies the team is still allowed to continue until the entire team disappears."

"Is Kaze going to be okay?" Kuwabara asked, watching Kaze also.

"She should be for a little longer," Kiara replied. She sighed, wishing their friends were around to help, yet knowing that she'd have to deal with this alone again. As she had since they had to leave their village. Kiara waved away the other questions the boys had and left the room to grab the items she knew they'd need.

When the boat arrived two days later, Kaze was yawning hugely at the dock and leaning on a post. "You think you'll be okay, Kaze?" Yusuke asked, putting a hand on Kaze's shoulder. Kaze nodded, yawning again, and followed Kiara onto the boat.

The boat ride was fairly peaceful, even though the boys all seemed a little tense and kept looking around at the other members of the boat. "Will you guys relax?" Kiara asked, frowning at the four guys.

"The last time we were on a boat headed towards a tournament the captain decided that all the groups on the boat would diminish the number of attendees by an all-out fight," Kuwabara explained, still wary. "And there are quite a few people on this boat; I wouldn't be surprised if this captain decides to do something also."

"Relax, we can take care of these idiots," Kaze mentioned, holding her aching head as she leaned against the railing. The boat ride went on fairly smoothly, only one group beginning to pick fights but quickly backing down when Kiara waved her hand and flung the leader of the group overboard with a gust of wind.

Half an hour went by in mostly silence until they began to see an island in the distance. "Hey, there it is," Yusuke said when he was the first to see the island, pointing off into the distance.

"Yup, that's the one we're headed towards," the captain said walking around on the deck.

"Wait, shouldn't you be at the wheel?" Kiara asked the man, frowning.

"Yup, I should be," the captain said, shrugging before walking away to instill panic in the other groups.

"We should have just flown over," Kaze growled, already feeling the boat rock unsteadily on a small wave, its direction moving slightly to the right.

"We couldn't carry everyone if we flew," Kiara argued with her.

"Um, we're headed towards a rock," Kurama said, standing up quickly. "We should probably get off now."

The groups around them heard Kurama and began jumping ship, each attempting to swim to the island. As the rocks got closer, more and more groups jumped off, but Kaze told the others to stay put, stretching to try to pop her back and make her headache go away. Eventually, they were the only ones on the ship besides the captain. "You're the only ones left," the captain said, turning and smiling at the group. "The first test though is swimming." The floorboards under the groups feet began to roll and they saw the captain melt into the ship, another version of him growing out of the boards farther away.

"Great, our ship is a shape shifter," Kiara groaned, she and Kaze summoning their staffs. They both spun their staffs forward and a wave shot up out of the ground and scooped the group up as the ship shrunk into the shape of a person with fins and gills, who swam away. The girls used their staffs like oars, using the wave as a ship, and carried the group to the island and crashing onto the shore.

"Ugh, I'm soaked," Kaze groaned, laying on the sand.

"That's a nice trick," Hiei said, sounding sarcastic. "You couldn't think to use that before?"

"You're sarcasm us both unwanted and unneeded," Kaze mumbled back, still not moving.

"Don't fight with her," Kurama said, sighing at Hiei, standing up and wringing out his shirt. Everyone began standing and trying to dry themselves until they gave up, noticing that Kaze still hadn't moved.

"Hey, get up," Hiei said, grabbing Kaze arm to begin to lift her.

"Ah, you might not want to do that," Kiara warned as Hiei grunted in surprise at the weight of Kaze's arm. Kiara joined him and lifted Kaze into a standing position easily, pushing her until she began to trudge up to solid ground, dusting herself off as she went.

"Fine, fine, I'm walking," Kaze sighed. She led the way off down a random path, her only intention to get to higher ground until they could find where they were and head in the right direction. The group's clothes dripped as they slowly dried, dragging each of them down as they walked, until they found a hill blocking their path.

"Should we go around it?" Kiara asked, peeking down the side of the hill, not seeing any indication of which way would be best. Kuwabara and Yusuke each ran off down a separate side a few yards until they both gave up, jogging back.

"It doesn't look like there's anything of interest on either side," they said, looking up at the steep hill.

"I guess that means it's time to climb," Kaze said, beginning up the sloping hill. She had walked quite a ways up the hill before the others decided they didn't have a better idea and followed in a line after her.

The group climbed higher and higher, getting to about halfway up the hill before Kuwabara asked if the girls could just float them up there. Kaze and Kiara shrugged and tried different ways to get the group up the hill. The air was too thin to create a large enough gust of wind and the sun was shining too brightly for any shadows to be at the top of the hill, ruling out shadow-stepping, so Kaze finally pushed a slab of rock out of the hill and began pushing it up the hill, picking up each of the group and lifting them up the hill with minimal effort on everyone else's part.

Kaze pushed the group to the top of the hill and waited until they'd stepped onto the ledge they came to before pushing the slab back into the hill. They had reached a kind of crater at the top of the hill and they realized that the hill was more like a volcano. A ledge circled the inside edge of the volcano leading down to the ground inside the volcano. "This is massive," Kurama mumbled, each of them staring down into the hole.

"Let's start heading down." Kiara said, beginning on the ledge.

"Are we sure this is where we need to go?" Kaze asked, staring down at the ground they could barely see below.

"According to the pamphlet it did say inside the volcano is where we'd need to go," Kiara replied, shrugging. The boys shrugged also and followed Kiara down the ledge. Kaze had begun to follow at the end, but was then hit was a bout of dizziness. She stopped moving, everything spinning around her and made her stumble a bit to the side. She missed the ledge, slipping off the edge and plummeting down to the ground. "Kaze!" Kiara shouted, having turned to see if she was following and seeing her fall.


	10. Chapter 10

**Kaze's okay, just like we knew she would be. And I tried to describe Hiei's annoyance with Kaze, but I feel like it wasn't the greatest description in the world...**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or its characters.**

* * *

Halfway down the hole, bright white wings, burst from Kaze's back, lifting her jacket up with their force and ripping through her shirt. A bright light circled her head and her eyes opened, clearing of all darkness and she straightened, her wings beating the air and she landed gracefully on her feet.

"What the hell was that?!" Yusuke shouted in surprise.

"Wrong direction," Kiara mumbled, gathering her energy and jumping straight off the ledge to land heavily beside Kaze, who was pulling her jacket off to allow her wings to flap around her. "Are you okay, Kaze-sama?" Kiara asked slowly, peeking up at her best friend.

"I'm good," Kaze replied, her voice suddenly soft and musical. She looked around in mild surprise, her expression clear of all the pain she'd been feeling over the past couple weeks. "Where are we?"

"We're… ah, in America?" Kiara began. "Currently on an island off the coast of California. What do you remember?"

"Feudal japan," Kaze replied as the boys finally joined the two women. "A coffee shop. Konoha." Kaze's face warped into pain, the perfection being cut sharply by the ugly feeling. "It's all slipping again." Her wings disappeared into her back again and the light around her head dimmed as Kaze fell over into a faint. Kiara grabbed her friend and put her on her back, struggling slightly under the weight but using her energy to keep her upright.

"What just happened?" Kuwabara asked, breathing heavily from their run.

"Can you guys take her wristbands?" Kiara asked instead, indicating Kaze's arms. Hiei and Yusuke did so as Kuwabara tried to continue asking questions.

"Shut up for a moment and hold her belt," Kiara said, unclipping Kaze's belt and hefting it over to Kuwabara, who was nearly thrown to the ground by the weight.

"Why are these so heavy?" Yusuke complained, he and Hiei struggling under the weight of the armbands.

"Be lucky I didn't ask you to take her jacket," Kiara snorted, adjusting Kaze again and asking Kurama to adjust Kaze's jacket so it wouldn't fall off. "It's much heavier than those."

"Can you tell us what happened while we walk?" Kurama asked, unclipping bands on Kaze's legs and throwing on at Yusuke while holding the other.

Kiara sighed, adjusting Kaze one more time on her back before beginning to walk, trusting Kurama to lead them to their hotel for the tournament. "We've gone through a lot since we were young," Kiara began, each step cushioned by chakra to keep from slipping into the ground. "We were ninja when we were younger, in our home village. But that wasn't all we were." Kurama led the group past shops that were just setting up, most of the groups not expected to get to the island for another week or so. "I'm a werewolf, I guess you could say. And Kaze's a vampire."

"Aren't those two enemies naturally?" Yusuke asked, each of the boys taking it all surprisingly well.

"They are, and our parents weren't any different. But we were civil," Kiara explained. "Until an accident. My family didn't think much of me and wasn't careful enough around me. As a child, a werewolf is extremely volatile and I lost control. I killed most of our families during a gathering, leaving only Kaze and both our fathers. I was dragged home by both our fathers and they tried to kill me but Kaze, even in the shock she was feeling, broke into the room and used a sword to kill both men before they reached me." Kiara took a deep breath to calm herself. This was the first time she'd done this without her best friend by her side. "We were shunned for years due to both our abilities and our past, but eventually people began talking to us. We were happy until we were about nineteen when this witch found us and attacked Kaze, taking her memories away. We had to leave after that, both to keep from over-stimulating her and to find this witch to try to get her memories back."

"That still doesn't explain what just happened," Hiei said when Kiara paused again.

"I'm getting there, impatient," Kiara grumbled. "Kaze's heavy." She adjusted her friend again before continuing. "When we left we got settled down in a country called Japan for a while until we stumbled into Feudal Japan where we met some demons."

"So she's a demon?" Hiei asked, almost sounding interested.

"Will you shut up?" Kiara asked him as they finally reached their hotel. They checked in and got their keys to their rooms and slowly made their way up the stairs to their suite. "While we were there we ran into some problems that led to her near death. As a result, an angel possessed her to save her life. What you saw back then was the angel coming out to save her life again."

They reached their suite and Kiara lay Kaze down on the couch stretching to straighten her back before taking the weights from the boys and putting them back on Kaze's arms and legs, giving up on her belt and laying it on the floor beside the couch.

"So what happened after that to get you here?" Kurama asked, interested in more of the story.

"After Kaze's possession, she and the guy she was with at the time ran into the witch again and Kaze lost her memories," Kiara told him, sitting down on the couch to rest. "We spent some time moving from our home in Kyoto and moved to Tokyo, just on the edge of it. We were there for some time and I'd gotten a letter from my friends back in Konoha, our home village, and slipped into a deep depression until I'd drawn a baku to me."

"What is a baku?" Kuwabara asked.

"A dream-eater," Hiei replied, rolling his eyes at Kuwabara for not knowing that

"Right, so I was possessed by a baku and Kaze and I weren't sure what to do," Kiara continued. "We eventually heard from an acquaintance that another baku was in the town and we went to see him. Kaze and I spent some time there until the witch found us again. This time I'd seen her and I made it my mission to find her and take her out. The baku we were with led us to the doorway between our dimensions and gave us a few spell books. Turns out Kaze and I are very good at magic, so we didn't have any problem learning it."

"So then you were here," Yusuke said.

"And have been here for about four years without any leads," Kiara replied. "This is the best lead we've had since arriving here."

"Are you sure Kaze's still asleep?" Kuwabara asked suddenly.

"Yea, she sleeps for a long time," Kiara replied, standing up and leaning over Kaze to check. "Yea, her breathing's still even. I'm going to go take a nap myself, so I'll see you guys later."

Kiara left the room, Kurama and Hiei going to another room soon after. Kaze opened her eyes, surprising Yusuke and Kuwabara. "As a ninja one should wake up without alerting anyone if there's information to be gotten," Kaze explained, turning on the couch to lay on her side. "She's the one who said I was a ninja."

"We thought you were asleep," Yusuke said, worried that she would get another headache from listening to Kiara talk about their life before.

"I was," Kaze told them. "I woke up immediately before Kiara started saying we were ninja. And I'm a vampire, I guess. Sounds pretty impossible." Kaze sighed. "I'm getting another headache, so this must have been what she was talking about. I'm going to pass out soon and not remember any of this when I wake up again. Give me a piece of paper and a pen." Kuwabara ran to obey and handed them to Kaze. She wrote down quickly "ninja, vampire, angel, witch" before her eyes closed and the paper and pen fell out of her hand, her breath evening again to show she'd fallen asleep once more.

Kaze stayed asleep for a few days. Kiara decided that she should stay with Kaze for the first few days in case she woke up without her memories again, but by the third day Kurama convinces her that they could leave Hiei and Yusuke in charge as he and Kuwabara took her out to the shops. More people had begun arriving, just a couple teams at a time, and some of the shops had opened up to meet their needs. Kiara admitted that they were running out of food stuff and allowed Kurama and Kuwabara to pull her out of the suite, leaving Kaze on the couch.

Yusuke left the room soon after, feeling trapped, to go to the roof and left Hiei alone with Kaze. Hiei sat on the couch reading a book at Kaze's feet to make sure she didn't roll off and hit her head or anything. An hour passed in silence before Hiei realized that Kaze had been awake for some time. "Ah, how are you feeling?" Hiei asked, trying to sound nice and unthreatening.

"Hungry," Kaze muttered, sitting up and looking Hiei over. Hiei sighed and looked over at Kaze to see why her voice was so suggestive, but then froze when his eyes met her black ones. She was watching him as if she intended to eat him and he wasn't entirely too sure he should let it happen.

"Wh-what are you doing?" Hiei asked, annoyed that his voice had wavered, as Kaze crept closer to him.

"Nothing that will hurt you too much," Kaze whispered to him, crawling into his lap. His hands immediately spread, allowing Kaze access, and his book fell over the end of the couch as he looked up at Kaze. "There's a good boy," Kaze said to him, grinning when his hands rested on her legs and he looked like prey caught in a snake's gaze.

"I'm not too comfortable with this," Hiei said, gulping as Kaze began nipping his earlobe. "I'm still trying to get over that you aren't a man and that I've been attracted to a woman this entire time."

"Aw, you're attracted to me?" Kaze purred in his ear, chuckling as Hiei's pulse jumped in excitement at the sound.

"I was, but I feel betrayed that Maru was just a disguise," Hiei whispered, tilting his head back to allow Kaze access to his neck.

"And now that you see that Maru didn't exist?" Kaze whispered back, kissing his neck gently.

"I'm still attracted but… confused," Hiei mumbled, hiding a groan from Kaze's attention.

"Let me help you then," Kaze said, sitting up suddenly and startling him. He lifted his head from the back of the couch, just to have Kaze push him back, latching onto his mouth. Hiei moaned into the kiss, their tongues wrapping around each other until he fell back to the couch, his head back as he breathed hard. Kaze took the chance and sunk her suddenly large fangs into his neck, pulling another moan from him as she drank. She only took enough to satisfy, making sure to lick his neck to close the holes, when Kiara and the others returned.

"Kaze!" Kiara shouted, realizing instantly what her friend was doing and ran forward only to have Kaze jump out of the way.

"I didn't hurt him," Kaze pouted, crouched on the floor a few feet away.

"What did you do?" Kurama asked, helping Hiei sit up, who was having some trouble seeing straight and staying awake. Hiei stood, only to sag against Kurama, the blood loss making him weak.

"I have to eat, you know that as well as I do," Kaze said to Kiara, her vision already swimming. "And, considering how long I'd avoided it, I'm lucky I didn't drain him completely." She pitched forward, falling to the ground unconscious as Kiara reached her.

"Well, she'll feel better when she wakes up," Kiara sighed, picking Kaze up easily and putting her on the couch again. "And at least she attacked him now instead of the day before the beginning of the tournament, so he'll be fine by then. I didn't think she'd attack him, though."

"What happened?" Yusuke asked, running in then.

"Kaze attacked Hiei," Kuwabara said. "I think she fed off him."

"He looks like he enjoyed it, though," Yusuke snickered, seeing Hiei's flushed face and heavy breathing.

"Shut up," Hiei commanded, allowing Kurama to lead him to their bedroom so he can lay down. "Next time she can drink from you."

"It is natural for the toxins in Kaze's venom to turn a man on," Kiara explained. "It makes the blood sweeter and, of course, makes it move faster through the body to make up for the loss it'll be feeling soon." She watched to make sure the door was closed before she added, "And he looks like he's really attracted to Kaze."

"I heard that!" Hiei yelled through the door as Kiara snickered with Yusuke and Kuwabara.


	11. Chapter 11

**Kaze's got more brain issues that need to be tended to.**

**Disclaimer: I still don't own Yu Yu Hakusho or, really, any character except Kiara and Kaze.**

* * *

The days passed slowly with Kaze finally waking up and feeling better than she had in a long time and Hiei finally getting over his slight anemia from Kaze feeding off him. Kaze of course didn't remember any of it and couldn't understand why Hiei continued to treat her coldly. Hiei, though, was just embarrassed that he'd told her so much of his inner thoughts when he was caught off guard.

Finally the first day of the tournament arrived and Kaze led the way to the arena. They were one of the first fights, which annoyed the group quite a lot, but they shrugged it off, realizing that as long as they didn't lose there would only be four fights before the final deciding fight with the owner of the tournament. "So we won't be giving too much away to the next groups since we only have four important fights," Kaze said, trying to be optimistic.

"But if we can hide our abilities until our last fight that'd be best," Kiara grumbled, her mood turning sour quickly.

"What are you so negative about?" Kaze asked, frowning at Kiara, bumping into someone in her moment of distraction. "Oh, I'm sorry," she said, bowing quickly to the man.

He smiled, and waved it off. "Don't worry about it," he said, walking off with his friend. Kiara stopped and turned back to the man, who had gray, spiked hair and a headband over one eye. He wore a blue mask over most of his face, the smile on his face only noticed by a slight crease in the fabric. He slouched along with his friend, a younger man who had brown hair tied up in a ponytail and a scar over the bridge of his nose, a headband like his companion over his forehead.

"I just feel like today is going to go really badly," Kiara mumbled, waving slightly when the younger man turned to see them, looking extremely surprised at their presence, before running to catch up with Kaze. Kaze held her head, another headache forming.

The six of them made it to the ground floor of the arena and took their place on their side of the stage. "Those are the ones we're fighting," Yusuke said, looking over at the demons pacing on the other side of the stage. The stage itself was white and circular, made of stone separated into diamonds.

"I recognize that one up front," Kurama said, looking at one with blue skin and pointed ears. "He controls with paint, I think."

"I don't think I want that one," Kaze states, also watching the demons. "I'd like the large one."

The largest one had a huge ax and dark green skin. He had scars over his body and a snarl on his face with one tooth hanging out. "Aw, I was gonna say I wanted that one," Kiara whined.

A commentator came out and described the rules. Each person had to fight until one was knocked out for ten seconds, dead, or out of the ring for ten seconds. The fighters would be decided on computer randomization. She turned everyone's attention to the screen and the first picture began scrolling through the people on the demon's side, landing on the large, snarling one. He complied by jumping into the ring, leaving a hole in the stage where he landed. "I want to go," Kaze mumbled at the screen as it scrolled through their pictures. She let out a huff of frustration when the picture landed on Kiara, who let out a happy sound and climbed to the stage, tugging her mini-skirt down so she didn't flash anyone.

The fight began and the big guy ran at Kiara, who side-stepped him, tripping the demon and sending him crashing to the ground. "He's kind of lame, can I get someone else?" Kiara asked the commentator as the demon struggled to stand. The demon heard her and jumped up, swinging his ax around. Kiara saw him half a second before the ax hit her and the commentator ducked. Kiara disappeared from in front of the commentator and she made the assumption that the ax had hit Kiara and began looking around frantically, trying to find her. Kiara stood up on the end of the demon's ax, drawing attention to herself, and ran along the ax to the demon, kicking him in the head and sending him crashing out of the ring.

The commentator began counting and Kiara curtseyed in response to the yells of anger from the demon's fans. The demon jumped back into the ring and swung the ax down at Kiara, who stepped half a step to the side, the ax crashing down next to her. "You're too slow," Kiara told the demon politely, grabbing the end of the ax, adding a small amount of energy to her hand, and lifting the ax and throwing it and its owner out of the ring again. This went on for a few more minutes until Kiara got tired of it and poured energy into her foot, stomping the ground and creating a small earthquake that unsettled the demon's footing before running at him, bending down, and sending a kick into his stomach, sending him not only out of the ring, but through the top of the arena and outside it.

"What part of 'don't show them what we can do' did you forget?" Kaze hissed, grinning at Kiara as she joined them after the commentator declared her the winner.

"The 'don't'," Kiara replied, grinning back. "I forgot how good it felt to fight someone."

The next picture that pulled up was the blue-skinned demon with the paints, followed immediately after by Kaze. "Oh, great," Kaze grumbled. "I don't want to fight an artist."

"He'll be dangerous," Kurama warned, unsurprised when Kaze waved off his warning and walked up the stairs to face off with the demon.

The commentator started the fight and the demon, swiped his paintbrushes at Kaze. Paint landed in a pattern on her neck and she frowned. "I don't feel any different," Kaze warned him before starting towards him. She took two steps before she sunk waist deep into the ground. "What the-!" Kaze shouted, struggling in the ground and ignoring the surprised look on the demon's face. "What did you do to me?!"

"I just took away your chakra," the demon said slowly, as if unsure.

"What the hell does that mean?" Kaze shouted at him, before realizing she couldn't summon any magic. "My magic! Ugh, when I get you… But that doesn't explain why I sunk into the ground!"

"Kaze, take off your jacket!" Kiara yelled, realizing what had happened. She could feel the glare from Kaze through the stage as she sunk down further, but knew she'd followed her advice when Kaze's jacket flew out of the hole and landed outside the ring, sinking into the ground on its own.

"And your belt!" Another voice yelled out as Kaze still sunk into the ground when she tried to pull herself out, though not as much as before. Kaze did as this voice said also without question, pulling off her wrist and ankle bands also until she could stand without sinking.

"That was strange," Kaze mumbled, the demon nodding in agreement, still surprised that Kaze had sunk into the ground. She shrugged and started towards the demon, surprised again when she was immediately in front of him, but kicked him in the side, sending him flying into the side of the seats around the arena with what she'd thought was a fairly light kick.

"How did you do that!" The demon shouted, pulling himself out of the rubble and climbing back onto the stage. "You shouldn't have any energy to add to your limbs!"

"I don't know what you're talking about, idiot," Kaze sighed, punching the demon when he came at her again.

The demon spat a tooth out onto the ground and stood up. "Very well, let's try this," the demon grumbled, pulling a sword handle out of his bag. Kaze, upon instinct, ran her hand into the ground and yanked up the top of one of the large diamond stones, holding it in front of her like a shield as the demon swiped the sword in her direction. Kaze heard the sound of metal hitting stone and her stone shield was cut in half. She stared at the demon in surprise, holding only a block of stone about five feet long and a foot wide and deep. The demon grinned and raised the sword handle again.

"What will you do now? You can't fly, and my invisible sword can cut through anything and everything on this stage," the demon asked.

"I can still jump and duck," Kaze told him, backing away while holding her stone.

"Not fast enough!" The demon laughed, swinging the sword handle at Kaze's head height first before swinging it down near her legs immediately after. Kaze felt the sword mass coming towards her head and dropped down to the ground, smug for a moment about dodging it until she felt it moving towards her again and realizing that she wasn't in a position to dodge again.

"Watch out!" Kiara shouted, also able to sense the direction of the sword even from her place outside the stage. Kaze planted her hand on the ground and was lifting herself up, ready to lose her arm rather than her life. The sword moved closer and Kaze wasn't out of the way yet when wings burst from her back and raised her high in the sky.

"Oh great, her wings are back," Kurama said, worried that Kaze would faint in the middle of her battle.

Kaze saw her wings and had a moment of panic before she realized she was confusing her opponent. She took the chance to throw the block she had in her hand at him, hitting him directly on the head. Instead of the brick stopping at his head like Kaze had thought it would, it busted right through his head, instantly killing the demon. The announcer was staring in shock at Kaze as she floated back to the ground.

"Can you start counting?" Kaze asked, waving her hand towards the demon with his head exploded all over the ground.

"I don't think that will be necessary," the demon stuttered, waving for someone to pick the demon up off the ground. "Kaze wins!" Kaze bowed in mockery and walked off the stage, her wings slipping into her back and quickly disappearing. She went and picked up her jacket to move it closer, carrying her jacket separate from the other weighted clothes so she wouldn't sink into the ground again.

"Are you feeling okay?" Kiara asked as Kaze set her weights down and sat on the ground. Yusuke was called up to fight the next demon, a scrawny one with yellow skin and black hair.

"I'm fine, I think," Kaze said, nodding. "I've gotten over the fact that I have wings and that I'm much stronger than I used to think I-" Without warning, Kaze fainted away in the middle of her sentence.

"I keep hoping she'll stay awake after finding something out about herself," Kiara sighed, sitting next to Kaze as she slept.

The next few fights passed while Kaze slept with Yusuke and Kurama both winning their fights without issue and propelling the group to the second round. The group was sent back to the hotel room to rest up for their next fight the next day and Kiara dragged Kaze onto her back and struggled out of the arena.

"Here, let me help," a man said, pulling Kaze onto his back with ease and walking with the group.

"Um, who are you?" Hiei asked unhappily, looking the white haired man up and down as they walked. "And why are you helping us?"

"This is Kaze's old teacher," Kiara introduced the man. "Kakashi-sensei, this rude thing here is Hiei. Over here is Kurama, Kuwabara, and Yusuke."

"Watch the word 'old'," Kakashi laughed, his eye crinkling as he smiled. "It seems she's still unable to remember herself," he continued, turning to indicate Kaze on his back.

"She's remembering more often," Kiara began. "But that also means she's fainting more often."

"Are you any closer to finding a way to get her memories back?" Another man asked with long, soft brown hair and gentle brown eyes. He was shorter than Kakashi by only a bit and had a scar across his nose.

"Iruka-sensei," Kiara said in surprise. The man smiled and waved at her. "K-kind of. We've found that a book here will be able to help us get back hoooo…. How did you guys get here?" She suddenly asked, realizing the two men were not in their right dimension.

"We got an invitation to a tournament," Kakashi answered.

"It was a little strange and very specific," Iruka continued. "The invitation said to bring some people to a building just outside the village. We walked through the door and found ourselves here with some people waiting for us."

"We got signed up for this tournament and they gave us the rules," Kakashi added, following Kiara up to their room. "We have a fight this afternoon to determine if we'll continue."

"When is your next fight scheduled?" Iruka asked Kiara kindly as Kakashi lay Kaze down on the couch.

"Tomorrow we get to be back in the rink," Kiara replied. "Thank you for carrying her for me. The weights are just too much for me."

"I understand," Kakashi said, nodding. "Well, we should get going and let the others know we've seen you so they aren't surprised if we end up going up against you later." The two men waved goodbye and Kiara shut the door after them, sighing.

"Are those two together?" Kuwabara asked suddenly from his seat.

"I wouldn't be surprised if they were," Kiara replied, shrugging. The group sat around, waiting for Kaze to wake up before convincing her to eat, ignoring her questions about her fight.


	12. Chapter 12

**Kiara's fed up with Kaze fainting whenever she's close to remembering.**

**Disclaimer: Still don't own those other characters.**

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The next morning, Kiara led an excited Yusuke and Kuwabara, a calm Kurama, a silent Hiei, and a fuming Kaze to the rink. "Will you stop being so secretive!" Kaze shouted at Kiara for the third time since she woke up.

"I'm not being secretive," Kiara sighed, rubbing her head as her headache grew.

"You won't tell me what happened yesterday," Kaze argued. "And you can't explain the random white hairs I had on my clothes. Why are you hiding things from me?"

"If I was hiding anything from you, you'd have noticed by now," Kiara grumbled. "There's nothing different today than there was last week."

"Well, I'm noticing now, so tell me!"

"I can't do that."

"And why is that?"

"Because your brain won't accept it."

"So you won't even try!?"

"I've tried!" Kiara finally shouted back. "Every time I do you faint, sometimes sleep for days, and when you finally wake up I'm lucky if you haven't forgotten MORE!"

"What do you mean more?" Kaze asked, suddenly backing down after she'd gotten a sufficient answer.

"You've forgotten things," Kiara grumbled at her. "Don't bother trying to remember now because we need you to fight this next battle and you'll just faint or something worse. I've tried to force your brain to remember and it just rejects it. But it gets so hard to try to hide it from you after so long. So I've given up doing things differently. I'd like you to remember, but I know it can't be forced."

Kaze stayed silent as they walked into the arena and took their place on one side of the stage. "Wait, something seems… familiar," Kaze spoke up after a few minutes, looking around in confusion. She looked over at Kiara to see that she's wrinkled her nose in disgust.

"They couldn't have bathed first?" She grumbled. "And why are they here?"

"Who?" Kurama asked in confusion as Kiara sighed.

"You'll see."

"Welcome back!" The announcer called out from their place on the stage. "We welcome back the mixed group that demolished their first competition and also the group of demons who used brute strength to remove their competition. These two powerful groups will be meeting each other in the rink today, so look forward to a good show!"

"Those are demons over there, but they don't look normal," Yusuke said, pointing to the other side of the rink.

Kaze followed his line of sight and found her eyes locked with a pair of golden eyes. "Inu… Yasha?" She blinked in confusion as she saw the pain flood into his eyes and his mouth formed her name.

"What did you say?" Kiara asked slowly, watching Kaze. She'd known instantly who their opponent was and had just decided to pretend she didn't recognize them when she heard Kaze say his name.

"That woman over there looks like Kaze," Kuwabara said, pointing to a woman with the same hair as Kaze. "Except for the ears, of course."

The woman he'd pointed out had the same hair color and length as Kaze and bright green eyes. Anyone could have mistaken the two if there weren't cat ears sitting atop her head that shifted at every sound. "They've all got animal features it looks like," Yusuke added. "Except that one girl who's shorter than the others."

"Wait, that girl is…" Kaze began before the shorter girl suddenly ran towards them, tackling Kaze and Kiara to the ground.

"Kiara-chan! Kaze-sama! I've missed you two so much!" The woman yelled as she squeezed the two women.

"M-Mel?" Kiara asked in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"Mel?" Kaze asked faintly, pain suddenly shooting through her head as a memory clicked in place. "Weren't you… in Feudal Japan?" She asked slowly, her head pounding.

"Kaze-sama, how did you…?" Kiara asked until she saw the pain in Kaze's expression as she fought the pain threatening to knock her out. "Mel, how did you get here?" Kiara asked instead, allowing Kaze time to work through her memories without adding more stress.

"We were all walking, looking for N-ah, him, when a chasm opened beneath us and we fell into a room," Mel explained, quickly avoiding names for Kaze's sake. "The people in the room told us that we wouldn't be able to leave until we participated in this tournament."

"Why is Mira there?" Kaze asked suddenly, names coming to her head as she saw the faces and realizing she felt an extreme amount of anger at the woman who looked like her.

"I-We found her while we were walking," Mel explained. "She explained that she wasn't right in her head when we'd seen her last. That a voice kept whispering for her to do things she hadn't wanted to do. It was persistent to the point of convincing, so she just followed what it said."

"Inu Yasha found her?" Kaze asked, noticing that Inu Yasha's ears twitched at the sound of his name. He turned slightly to see her and she sighed, realizing he was already in love with Mira. "I never did hear what had happened between those two, I don't think."

"When Kagome was still with them," Mel began before she bit her lip worriedly at having slipped a name, but sighed in relief as Kaze nodded her head, able to remember the name without any pain. "When she was still with them, they'd helped Mira out and she joined them. Inu Yasha became interested in her one of the times that Kagome was gone for a long period of time. Apparently, Inu Yasha was shot with Kagome's arrow after Kagome tried to kill Mira."

"Obviously she didn't die…" Kaze said slowly, watching Inu Yasha stand near Mira, who looked afraid to even walk near Kaze. "And Naraku found her and helped her continue living. Which is when I found her. When I killed Kikyo."

"You remember all that?" Inu Yasha asked, walking up as Kaze had turned away from him to see the reactions of surprise from Mel and Kiara.

"I do," Kaze replied, nodding. She didn't notice Hiei seething behind her, angry that she'd had so many men in her life and he was still snubbed by her. "I'm glad you're with Mira," she continued, nodding.

"I did…" Inu Yasha began, unable to continue.

"I did, too," Kaze replied anyway, knowing what he was saying. He sighed, looking away, and Kaze hugged him tightly. "I am glad though that you could continue. But this tournament is dangerous, what are you all doing being part of it!"

"They said we couldn't leave until we participated," Inu Yasha replied. Hiei was pulled away by Yusuke and Kuwabara as he frowned unhappily at Inu Yasha's closeness.

"This tournament isn't safe," Kaze told him. "Everyone always dies in the end, you need to get out of here as quickly as possible."

"We need to continue fighting until we lose is what we were told," Inu Yasha argued back. "So, unless you have some way of getting us home that I don't know about, we're going to fight."

"We're your next opponents, and we won't be going easy on you," Kaze said, losing her patience with the half-demon. "Kia and I might, but we still need to win, and no one will get in the way of that."

Inu Yasha was about to argue when Mira appeared next to him and pulled him away. "We understand that you need to win," Mira said, her voice exactly the same as Kaze's. "And we're prepared to let you win. We were just told to participate, not win."

"I'm glad you realized that," Kaze said, her tone immediately frosty. "Let's get this over with, then." Mira bowed and dragged Inu Yasha away to the other side of the stage as the roulette started to find who would be fighting whom.

Hiei's name popped up first, followed by Inu Yasha's and they both made their way to the stage happily. "Remember, we just needed to participate!" Mel called up to Inu Yasha. "So don't kill him!"

"This little punk has been glaring at me since we walked in," Inu Yasha scoffed. "I don't intend to let him off easy.

"Hiei, don't kill him," Kaze said, raising an eyebrow at the fire demon. He waved his hand to indicate he'd heard, but didn't reply.

The fight started off simple enough with Inu Yasha throwing some punches and Hiei dodging them easily. Kaze sighed at the simplicity of it and sat down, deciding instead on trying to sort through her memories and figure out why they were giving her such a headache. "Kia, why didn't I remember Inu Yasha before?" Kaze asked suddenly after a moment. Kiara turned a blank look on her, refusing to say anything that might cause her to faint. "You know don't you?"

"I do," Kiara replied simply, still watching Kaze for any sign that she was going to pass out.

"And you won't tell me?" Kaze asked, her voice dropping dangerously as she sent a glare to her best friend. Kiara pressed her lips together, upset that Kaze was blaming her, but still not willing to let her faint. Kaze stared at Kiara, waiting for an answer, watching her expression carefully. Neither paid any attention to the fight up on the stage as Hiei began to seriously fight Inu Yasha, showing off his speed.

"Maybe… You can't tell me?" Kaze asked after another moment. Kiara nodded her head, sighing slightly in relief. Kurama and Yusuke listened quietly as Kuwabara focused his attention on the fight on the stage. "Can you tell me why you can't?"

"Because you'll faint," Kiara told her. "And we can't have you fainting in the middle of this fight." With that she turned away from Kaze and back to the fight, where Inu Yasha had just pulled out his sword and knocked Hiei to the side of the ring. Seconds passed and Hiei was suddenly knocked to the ground outside the ring, his head hitting one of the walls and knocking him out.

"Great, Inu Yasha beat Hiei," Kaze sighed, standing up. "The fool. He's now pissed me off. I hope I'm next."

"I don't think this is that kind of battle," Yusuke told her.

"I don't care, I'll knock that half demon down on his sorry ass," Kaze said, stretching. The roulette started and landed on Yusuke and Koga, earning a frown from Kaze. "Hurry it up. My head's pounding."

"You get so irritable sometimes," Kuwabara said, frowning. Kaze pushed him and he was flung a few feet away.

The fight ended quickly enough with Koga being knocked out so he couldn't fight anymore and Shippo and Kuwabara were called up. Shippo allowed Kuwabara to knock him out of the rink and took his time getting back into the ring so that Kuwabara was named the winner. "That little punk didn't fight for real!" Kuwabara complained when he got back down.

"Don't be annoying," Kaze sighed, tapping her foot irritably. Finally her name popped up with Mira's and she jumped to the stage, face to face with the demon who looked like her.

"I don't dislike you," Mira said carefully when the fight began.

"That's too bad," Kaze said. "Because I truly dislike you. The others may have accepted your 'I didn't know what I was doing' speech, but you seem far too intelligent to have been talked into being on Naraku's side."

"What does that mean?" Mira asked, beginning to edge to the side only to be matched exactly by Kaze.

"It means I feel like you've been lying to my friends," Kaze told her, matching the demon in every step. "I suspect that you'll change your mind again when you get close to Naraku. That you've been changing sides when there is a clear winner. Are your regretting staying with them now that Kia and I aren't there?"

"Inu Yasha would get blinded by his infatuation with that idiot woman," Mira suddenly snarled. "She held him back, made him weak. Naraku wasn't weak, that's why I followed him."

"And when I killed Kikyo again and scared Naraku off, you thought Inu Yasha might have a deciding player on his team, which would have made him the winner in the end, right?" Kaze asked, knowing that Inu Yasha could hear them, even though it seemed Mira hadn't remembered him.

"Of course he looked like he'd be the best choice," Mira said. "And I'd had every intention of helping him when I first joined, but then I noticed that you and that wolf were no longer there, leaving only this pathetic human with Shippo. I began to realize that Inu Yasha would lose to Naraku."

Kaze put aside Mira's statement about the wolf, thinking she'd meant Koga and getting a little confused. "What will you do now?" Kaze asked as Mira finally stopped circling.

"I'm going to start by killing you," Mira told her, immediately charging. The fight lasted only a few seconds before Kaze had pinned Mira to the ground, stepping on her head and holding her right arm above her head, effectively stopping her movement.

"Let me make something very clear," Kaze told her as the announcer began to count. "I may not remember everything about my time with Inu Yasha, but I am positive that if I learn you've betrayed them and hurt my friends, I will find a way to get back. I will find you. And I won't show you any mercy. You'd better make the right decision." The announcer called ten and Kaze released the demon, allowing Mira to join Inu Yasha, who looked shocked and hurt.

Kiara and Mel were up next in the deciding battle and they pretty much played around, simply sparring, until Kiara pinned Mel easily and held her down until the announcer called ten. With this battle, leaving Kurama and Sho without a fight, Kaze and Kiara's team was named the winner. As everyone was leaving, Inu Yasha walked up to Kaze again.

"Why did you do that?" Inu Yasha asked, a little angry with her for egging on Mira.

"I just wanted her to know what would happen if she betrayed you," Kaze replied. "I'm happy you're with someone, but if that someone is going to hurt you or my friends, I'm going to kill them." Inu Yasha stared at her, unsure of what to say, so she turned and left, following Kiara and the others out the door.


	13. Chapter 13

**Kashi-sensei makes his return! Whoo!**

**Disclaimer: Do not own Yu Yu Haksuho characters, Naruto Characters, Inu Yasha Characters, etc... just Kaze and Kiara are ours.**

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The group had the rest of the day off, so they decided to go see the shops in the small town surrounding the arena. It had really come to life in the time that they'd been there, all the stores opening up and even one of the streets becoming more of a market place. The group grabbed ingredients for dinner, Kaze promising to cook for them that night since they'd been doing better than they'd thought they would have.

While they were out, Hiei kept either pointedly ignoring Kaze when she spoke or was very unhelpful with his answers, so Kaze decided to quit trying to speak to him, upset that he'd act that way around her, especially since he'd seemed attracted to her before. "He's just upset you've had so many people in your life," Kiara told her, having heard the explanation from Kurama a couple hours before.

"What are you talking about?" Kaze asked, the explanation sounding ridiculous.

"He really liked you," Kiara sighed. "And he was confused when you were Maru because he'd been prepared to be with you, even if you were a man. Once you suddenly turned into a woman, he got confused and upset that he'd been so ready to change for you and you'd been lying to him."

"That doesn't make any sense," Kaze scoffed, picking up some onions for taste, even though Kiara wrinkled her nose at them.

"He's a man, you can't think of it with the logic of a woman, you have to think of it from his point," Kiara tried again. "Imagine meeting someone who fascinated you and made you feel happy with your life. Now imagine that person is a woman. If you'd fallen hard enough for them you'd change who you are for them." Kaze thought about it and shrugged, admitting it made more sense, but was still a stupid way to think. "Aren't you interested in him at all?"

"From what I've remembered, I've had nothing but bad luck with love," Kaze told her, allowing Kiara to sneak cookies into their basket. "I have no intention of getting involved with another person after all that. I just want to find out what I can't remember and be done with these people."

"Do you even know why we need this book?" Kiara asked.

"You say we need it," Kaze replied. "After learning that some of my memories are either gone or messed up, I'm willing to bet it has something to do with something I've forgotten. So, until I remember what I can't right now, no I don't know why we need this book." The two stopped speaking as the others joined them, Hiei still looking sulky, and they paid and left.

The sky had already gotten dark when they began to make their way to the room and Kaze walked down the street, completely at ease. Kiara had run off ahead of her with Kurama and Yusuke, leaving Hiei to walk with Kaze. "Such a nice night, eh Hiei?" Kaze said, smiling at her companion.

"Not really, it's dreary," Hiei said, trying to irritate Kaze. Kaze sighed, her eye twitching, but otherwise hid her anger, not letting Hiei have the satisfaction of knowing he'd annoyed her.

A shadow stalked Kaze silently, but Kaze felt him behind her, the feeling that had become so familiar to her, even if she couldn't remember why. A name flitted through her head as she saw the shadow flit passed the ally way near them: Kashi-sensei. She snickered, knowing that Hiei had no idea the shadow was so near.

The shadow launched himself at his prey, but Kaze side-stepped him easily and he fell to his feet slightly in front of them, startling Hiei and pulling forth a small noise from the fire demon. "Hello, Kashi-sensei," Kaze said easily, grinning at her former teacher.

The man laughed, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment. "How'd you know I was there?" He asked, his visible eye guilty as he looked at Kaze.

"I don't know, I just did," Kaze said, patting Kakashi's shoulder as she walked past. "Why don't you join us for dinner, Kashi-sensei?" Kakashi followed her to the hotel, surprising Kiara with the visit.

"Kashi-sensei, what are you doing here?" Kaze asked after they'd made dinner and were sitting down to eat.

"A few of the others and I were invited to join this tournament," Kakashi replied, having already pulled down his mask to eat. "We were told we couldn't go home until we participated in it after we'd been tricked into this… town."

"Who else is here?" Kaze asked, her head pounding but choosing to ignore it. Seeing Kakashi calmed her, even if her head protested violently.

"Iruka, Sasuke, Naruto, Sakura, and Sai," Kakashi replied, only giving her the answers she asked for, knowing he shouldn't overwhelm her with information.

"Is… Shi…no here?" Kaze asked slowly, her brain pulling a name from the depths of her memory with difficulty. Her head began to hurt more and more and she stopped eating, sighing heavily.

"He's not," Kakashi replied, watching Kaze carefully. She nodded, unable to continue asking questions. Kakashi instead asked them how they've been doing and where they've traveled, all questions Kaze could answer without her head pounding since they happened during a time she didn't have problems remembering.

Their meal passed quickly and it was soon time for Kakashi to go. "I'm glad I saw you again, Kaze-chan," Kakashi said, pulling Kaze into his arms and hugging her tightly, neither of them noticing that Hiei seemed to get angrier as the seconds passed. "I think we're fighting tomorrow, so try to get a good night's sleep so you don't kill us. You lose your self-control when you don't sleep."

"I'll make sure I sleep," Kaze replied, smiling at the older man before he released her and left. Hiei left the room quickly after, leaving Kaze to wonder what was wrong with him, but Kaze sat up to speak with Kiara about the things she remembered, slowly piecing things together. By the time she went to sleep, she knew where she'd been and most of the names of people she'd known, but she couldn't remember what happened between each of the time periods she remembered or the small gap before moving to America, neither could she remember who she was or what she'd done in the places she'd been.

The next morning, Kaze led the way to the arena, feeling better than she'd felt in a long time. The arena was already full and the other team was already there, so Kaze and Kiara went over to speak to them, Sasuke surprising them by hugging each of them and Sakura not annoying them. When they asked Naruto what had happened, he explained that Sasuke and Sakura ended up getting together after Kaze and Kiara had left. He also told them, embarrassed, that his wife, Hinata, was currently pregnant with their child, which is why she couldn't come. Tsunade was still alive and ordering them around and Kakashi had finally gotten together with Iruka, which, for some reason, surprised him though Kaze and Kiara had suspected it would happen for some time.

"How are you lately?" Naruto asked Kaze as she hugged Sai, who was able to smile with feeling at them.

"I'm good," Kaze replied, nodding. "I'm realizing there are some things I've forgotten and that something's trying to keep me from remembering because my head pounds whenever I remember something from before America." Naruto nodded, letting it drop as the matches began.

Kaze and Sasuke were the first to fight, only sparring seriously to provide some entertainment for the audience. Sasuke had gotten much better, but still didn't stand a chance against Kaze's speed and strength and was quickly knocked out of the rink and quickly counted out as he tried to stand up, even after Kaze had removed his ability to move his legs. The announcer told them then that it would be an elimination round, so Kaze would continue until she was knocked out.

Sakura jumped up next, providing slightly more of a challenge due to her training with Tsunade, the same woman who had taught Kaze and Kiara and who was famous for adding energy to her limbs to increase her strength. Sakura had picked up on a few tricks from Kaze's old teacher and managed to knock Kaze into the sky, even with all her weights on. "Ugh, you're still a heavyweight!" Sakura complained until Kaze landed on top of her.

"Just go to sleep, stupid girl," Kaze sighed, sitting down heavily on the other woman. Sakura struggled under her as the announcer began to count, but Kaze sat still on her until the numbers reached ten, then finally stood up. "Next?"

Naruto climbed up next and only lasted a minute in the rink with Kaze before she flicked him in the head and knocked him out, also pushing him out of the rink. Sai jumped up next, but wasn't trying much because he'd been hit by Kaze before and didn't really want her to hit him again. The first time she pushed him out of the arena he stayed out, even as Sakura yelled at him for it.

"I guess I'm next," Iruka said, finally running into the arena as his name came up on the screen.

"Ah, Iruka-sensei!" Kaze shouted, hugging the older man tightly when he got up on the rink.

"It's so good to see you, Kaze-chan!" Iruka laughed, hugging Kaze back. "But we'll have to talk later, they're calling for blood."

"Oh, well then, I'm sorry you got her just to be thrown out, Iruka-sensei," Kaze said, bowing apologetically. Iruka tilted his head in confusion, then let out a yell as Kaze picked him up and threw him out of the rink, silently sending an air pocket to pick him up and gently set him down far away. "Alright, Kashi-sensei, it's your turn," Kaze said, turning to her teacher and waiting for him to join her on the stage.

Kakashi looked up from his book, silently tucking it away in his pouch and walking up the stairs to meet Kaze on top of the arena. "Is it my turn already?" He asked slowly, smiling at Kaze. She nodded and the announcer called for the beginning.

Kaze immediately charged, ready to punch him in the stomach and send him flying like she always used to, but was surprised when Kakashi grabbed her hand, bringing her to a quick stop. Sasuke and Naruto watched in shock and Kiara called encouragement to Kaze to break out of his grip. Kaze pulled on her hand, slightly pulling Kakashi forward, and spun to kick him, but he grabbed her leg too. He fell back and threw Kaze over him and out of the arena. She landed on her feet and immediately jumped to land back in the arena, but Kakashi had rolled to meet her, his foot landing a kick directly on her stomach, knocking her into a wall around the rink behind Sasuke and she was buried deep in the concrete.

"How did he beat her?" Yusuke asked in surprise as Kaze's countdown hit ten. Kaze finally pulled herself from the concrete, shaking her hair to get dust out and made her way to Kiara.

"Sorry, good luck," Kaze told the other woman, patting her shoulder.

"Oh, Hiei's next," Kiara said, almost sighing in relief. Hiei's picture did indeed pop up on the screen and he made his way to the rink.

"So who are you, exactly?" Hiei asked quietly, circling Kakashi slowly. He wasn't sure how to attack after seeing him just take Kaze out.

"I'm Kaze's old teacher," Kakashi replied. "And a past lover. We spent a lot of time together for some time."

"You two were together?" Hiei asked, getting upset again. Kaze had been with so many other people, so many different people, it was no wonder she seemed uninterested.

"We were," Kakashi replied. "But we ended things long before she lost her memories. It seems she had a couple other interests since she left." He charged Hiei to attack, but was surprised at his speed because the demon darted away, keeping a comfortable distance away. "Why, do you like her?"

"That pathetic human?" Hiei scoffed quickly.

"Yes, that human," Kakashi chuckled. "You don't know much about her yet, do you?" Hiei frowned at him, refusing to admit how little he actually knew and understood about the woman. "She's not quite human. Has she fed from you yet?" Hiei's face quickly turned pink against his will and he scowled at Kakashi. "She needs to eat, even if she fights so hard against it. She's a vampire and, just like every other vampire, is a bloodsucking monster with no regard for life."

"She's not like that!" Hiei suddenly yelled at him, sending his own kick at Kakashi only to have the man block him easily and dodge away.

"Touchy," Kakashi said, laughing lightly. "You haven't spent enough time with her… You don't know how she is." Hiei growled at him, quickly running at him again to punch him, but his arm was caught and Kakashi pulled him close so he could whisper in the demon's ear. "You're right, she's not like that at all. I was just playing with you to see if you were lying about not being interested. You seem pretty protective of her character."

Hiei's face turned hot as she realized he'd given himself away, and Kakashi took the chance to throw him out of the rink. The announcer started the count, but Hiei was too flustered to get back on the stage in time without Kakashi pushing him back off before he touched it.

"What did he say to you?" Kaze asked Hiei as he stomped back to the group, angry. Kaze had seen him speaking to Kakashi, but both men had been careful to keep their voices low enough so she couldn't hear. Kiara, however, had been snickering at the argument on the stage the entire time. "Who's not like what?"

"Nothing, it doesn't concern you," Hiei grumbled, crossing his arms tightly and leaning against the wall. Kaze frowned at him even as Kiara laughed out loud at his statement.

"Fine, grumpy," Kaze grumbled back at him as Yusuke's name came up next. Yusuke managed a little longer with Kakashi, but they seemed more to be talking than fighting. Yusuke kept getting information on the two women, only stopping when one of his punches was blocked and he was flung out into the stands. Kuwabara was next, but he didn't last long with Kakashi.

"I'm next," Kurama said slowly, seeing his name pop up next. "But he doesn't even look tired."

"That's because he's a trained spy and assassin," Kaze told him. "He has, in the past, gone days without sleep, fighting every few hours, and still managed to come home and spend a full day with everyone before passing out. I'd be surprised if anyone could beat him after he took me out. Kiara's probably the only one who could come close."

"It's true," Kiara said, almost sounding surprised that Kaze could provide the answer. "The only time he's ever needed to be rescued was one time when Kaze was his medic. And even then it was almost too much to Kaze to handle once she got there. And they took you both by surprise, didn't they?" Kaze nodded, remembering the incident clearly. She could remember her time in Konoha, the village she'd grown up in, and the kind man she'd eventually come to love intimately. The only thing she couldn't remember is why she felt such disdain for most of the villagers she'd grown up around. They'd mistreated her… But she couldn't remember why. She felt a stab of pain in the back of her head and knew that continuing the thoughts would lead to losing consciousness, so she decided to move forward in her memory instead of backwards.

"Kiara… the people I had dreams about…" Kaze began, watching Kurama take his whip out and keep away from Kakashi during his attack.

"Yes?" Kiara asked, hoping her friend had finally realized what her dreams were.

"They were memories of these people, weren't they," Kaze said, knowing she'd dreamt of Sasuke most often, since he was the one who'd betrayed them most significantly. He looked normal, back to the person who'd been the second to speak to them when they were young. He smiled and laughed, and even looked at Sakura kindly instead of with disdain. He'd gotten sullen when they'd found him and rescued him from Orochimaru's influence, barely sparing the time of day for them. But he looked happier and Kaze wondered if it was because of Sakura.

"They were," Kiara replied, wondering what else Kaze would ask her.

"And I asked you to eat them once… Because you're a dream eater," Kaze continued, a piece of her memory suddenly slamming into place. "Just like Hiruko."

"That's right," Kiara replied, nodding.

"Were we ever human?" Kaze asked suddenly, almost laughing.

"Not exactly," Kiara replied smiling a little herself.

"Good. Being human is overrated," Kaze said after a moment. "We need this book because we're trying to get back to Konoha. Maybe not even that village specifically. But definitely back to the dimension we'd come from."

"Yes, we are. And Watanuki has heard that this book will help with that," Kiara replied. "Do you know why we're looking for this witch?"

"She erased my memories," Kaze said slowly, not entirely sure of herself. Kurama had managed to tie Kakashi up and roll him off of the stage. The announcer counted to ten, finally counting Kakashi out. "But we don't need her now that I remember most everything."

"We still need to make sure she doesn't take your memories away again," Kiara said. "I still don't even know why she started to erase them!"

"In Feudal Japan," Kaze said. "When she was younger, she'd been following an angel to make a meal of her, I don't know why. When that angel saw I was in danger, she merged with me to save my life. Which means I stole the witch's meal. She saw me again in Konoha and must have been surprised that I was still alive that long, even though that was actually the first time I'd seen her. But it wasn't the first time along a historic timeline that we'd met because Feudal Japan was in the past. So she took my memories again in Konoha, maybe hoping it would replace her meal of the angel. She saw me again in Japan near the tea shop and took them then too, since I'd already made so many since she last saw me."

"You'd already figured all that out even though you just started remembering everything?" Kiara asked, surprised.

"It all makes sense," Kaze replied, nodding. Kakashi walked over to them and hugged the two girls tightly before the others made it over to them, each ninja hugging the girls before they all bid each other goodbye.

"Have you seen Inu Yasha since yesterday?" Kiara asked suddenly, looking around.

"No, why?" Kaze replied, following the other teammates out of the arena and back to their hotel.

"Mel had said she was going to come see us after our fight and I don't smell her anywhere," Kiara said, still looking around frantically. "And I haven't smelled Inu Yasha or anyone since we fought them yesterday."

"Where could they have gone?" Kaze asked. "They said they couldn't go back home yet, so they can't have left."

"Then why didn't they come to see our fight?" Kiara asked, slowly being pulled away.

"Most likely they were just asleep," Kaze assured her. "Nothing to worry about, I'm sure. If you'd like, we can scry for her when we get back to the hotel." Kiara agreed to that, allowing Kaze to lead her back to the hotel.


	14. Chapter 14

**Uh oh. People are missing! Where'd they go?**

**Disclaimer: Do not own most of the characters.**

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"They're not on the island," Kaze said, opening her eyes.

"Wait, they'd said they couldn't leave, shouldn't they be here?" Yusuke asked, sitting in the chair in the room.

"They should, yes," Kaze agreed. "But they're not."

"Try again, maybe you hadn't done it right," Kuwabara suggested.

"I've never done a scrying incorrectly," Kaze snapped at him, frowning. "They aren't on the island."

"Here, try a larger map," Kiara suggested, pulling a map of the continent out and laying it down over the island map.

Kaze agreed and closed her eyes again. Once more the stone didn't move. "They aren't on the continent," Kaze said, beginning to understand what had happened.

"Well where are they!?" Kiara asked, panicking.

"Relax," Kaze sighed. "They'd said they couldn't leave until they'd lost, right?" Kiara nodded and Kaze raised an eyebrow, waiting for her friend to get it.

"They'd lost to us, so maybe they were sent back home," Kurama suggested.

"Do you have a map of feudal Japan?" Kaze asked. "Even one that was made recently I could use." Kiara pulled out a map of Fuedal Japan she'd bought after their first visit and spread it out. Kaze closed her eyes and the stone immediately lifted out of her hand and dropped heavily onto a place on the map. "See? They're in Rin's village."

With her question answered, Kiara calmed down and was able to go to bed. Kurama, Yusuke, and Kuwabara followed behind soon after, leaving Kaze and Hiei alone in the room. "You and Kashi-sensei were talking about something pretty seriously today," Kaze began, still curious.

"It was nothing," Hiei said shortly, standing up and moving to leave.

"Why do you act like that around me?" Kaze asked him, angry. "I've tried being nice and you're just… you're a jerk all the time!"

"That's because you-" Hiei began before he sighed, giving up. He knew Kaze would think him being sensitive about the lies she'd told him when they met.

"That's because I- what?" Kaze demanded. "Why do you dislike me so much? What did I do to you?"

Hiei walked back to Kaze putting his hand on the back of the couch on either side of her and moved close so they were face to face. "I don't dislike you," he told her slowly.

"Then what's your problem?" Kaze asked, a little flustered by his sudden nearness.

"I'm jealous," Hiei told her. Kaze was shocked into silence by his sudden character change. He'd stopped being the cold, judgmental, angry demon she'd become used to and had changed into a gentle, shy man, focusing all his attention on her. She wasn't sure if she liked the change, but found she liked the attention. "I want the attention you'd given those other men. But I was angry that you'd pretended so thoroughly to be a man when we first met. I fell so hard for you when I first saw you and thinking you were a man had changed who I was."

"So, what, you want to sleep with me?" Kaze asked, scoffing.

"No, I want to touch you," Hiei replied, lifting on hand to lay it on Kaze's face. Kaze closed her eyes at the touch, surprised at how gentle it was. When she opened her eyes again, Hiei's red eyes were level with hers. She was drawn to the demon and his lips touched gently with hers, pulling a sigh from her. When he pulled away, Kaze's heart was beating quickly and her face was hot from embarrassment.

"Why did you do this now?" Kaze asked, locking her eyes with the demon again.

"Because that teacher of yours pushed me into jealousy," Hiei replied. "I was fine with the half demon, but a man so much older than you?"

"Technically, Inu Yasha was so much older than me also," Kaze said, her face still red. "And it's not like we were in a serious relationship. It was more… lust than anything." She cleared her throat before continuing, "And Inu Yasha and I weren't together for long before we ran into the witch that took my memories."

"Speaking of your memories," Hiei said, sitting down next to Kaze. "Did you remember that you were an angel?"

"Yes, I did," Kaze replied. "It's the reason the witch kept taking my memories away."

"Did you remember that you're a vampire?" Hiei asked next, watching Kaze carefully. She looked at him in confusion. "Looks like not."

"What do you mean I'm a vampire?" Kaze asked, turning to Hiei for an explanation.

"Don't worry about it," Hiei told her, pushing her down on the couch and pressing his lips to hers again. Kaze let out a sound as Hiei's hands slid slowly down her body.

"Don't do this," Kaze whispered when they broke apart for air.

"Stop me," Hiei dared her before pressing his lips to her again. His tongue found its way into her mouth and his hands rested on her hips, but she never tried to stop him.

In the morning, Kiara walked into the living room to find Kaze curled up in Hiei's arms, her head resting on his chest and his arms wrapped around her shoulders and waist. Kiara watched them for just a moment before tapping Kaze's shoulder to wake her up. Her eyes immediately opened in surprise and she looked up at Kiara before suddenly jumping up and out of Hiei's arms, embarrassed. "Ah, Kiara! You're awake!"

"So are you," Kiara said, hiding a smile. "How was your night?"

"Fine, fine," Kaze said, escaping the room as Hiei began to wake up. "I'm going to start breakfast."

"So… How did your night go?" Kiara asked Hiei teasingly as Kaze escaped and Hiei sat up, rubbing his head.

"It was good," Hiei mumbled, standing up and moving to the window. "Do we have a fight today?"

"I think it's the last one," Kiara said, deciding to talk to him later about what had happened. "But it's this afternoon, so we still have a few hours before we have to head over."


	15. Chapter 15

**Finally an explanation! Sorry you had to wait this long for one.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho or Inu Yasha or Naruto**

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The group spent the morning in the room, talking about who their last fight could be against and wondering at how quickly the tournament had gone by. "We've only been here a few days and we're already in the last fight," Kiara said.

"It doesn't seem like there were very many fighters," Yusuke agreed. "We only had three fights."

"It would seem as if the boat that took everyone to the island did a better job at getting rid of people than we'd thought it could," Kurama said, nodding. Kaze and Hiei stayed silent, neither quite looking at each other.

As Kaze grabbed the dishes to clean and Hiei left through the window to sit in a tree outside, Kurama asked Kiara's opinion of what had happened between the two. "I caught them together this morning," Kiara replied almost instantly. "They fell asleep together on the couch and Kaze looked embarrassed when I found them. They must have made up."

"That's good," Kurama nodded. "At least they're no longer fighting." Yusuke and Kuwabara had gone outside to spar before their last fight, so Kurama and Kiara were alone in the room. "So, what will you do when we're finished with this fight?" Kurama asked carefully, turning to watch Kiara as she sat on the couch, watching the door that led to the separate kitchen.

"I think we'll just go back home," Kiara replied, unsure why he was asking.

"Do you have someone waiting for you back home?" Kurama asked, now turning away from Kiara to keep his expression neutral.

"Not really," Kiara said. "We had broken up soon before Kaze lost her memories the first time and I hadn't gotten close to anyone since. Why?"

"Just wondering," Kurama replied, shrugging. "Um, if you don't have anyone waiting for you, why do you need to go back?" He asked after a moment of silence.

"Because my friends are there and I miss seeing them," Kiara replied, now getting extremely confused. "Why are you so interested in if I'm going home all of a sudden?"

"It's not really sudden interest," Kurama replied, avoiding Kiara's eyes. "I'm just… Curious."

"That's an awful lot of curiosity for someone who's not interested," Kiara replied.

"I didn't say I wasn't interested," Kurama said, his eyes suddenly meeting Kiara's. He held her gaze for a moment and she slowly understood.

"Oh… you…" She began, her face slowly growing pink. "I'm not sure…"

"Will you at least consider going out with me once we've won this book?" Kurama asked boldly, worried she'd turn him down.

"I… I would love to," Kiara finally agreed, nodding and smiling in embarrassment.

"Now that that's been decided, we should get going," Kaze said, poking her head into the room and catching both people of guard. "We don't want to be late for our last fight."

The group left only a few minutes later after getting ready and walked to the arena. "Our last fight," Kaze said. "We can see the end."

"Are you unhappy here?" Kiara asked Kaze slyly, wanting her to tell her what had happened.

"Just on this island," Kaze said in response. "We're here." The group walked into the arena, Kiara pouting that Kaze didn't answer her questions properly.

The arena was empty except for a few demons sitting in a small section of seats close to the arena and the group looked around in confusion. "Where's the rest of the audience?" Yusuke asked, confused.

"This one is only for a few people to see," one of the demons in the seats stated. "Please move to the stage." Once all six were standing on the stage, facing the demons, the one speaking continued, "Welcome to your execution."

At that point a woman descended upon them, long silver hair flowing around her and gray eyes locked on them. The group all jumped out of the way, Kaze's wings immediately bursting from her back and lifting her into the air. "You…" Kaze said, recognizing the woman.

"It's her!" Kiara yelled, pointing up at the woman. "That's the witch that took Kaze's memories!"

"You're the child who was possessed by my meal," the witch said, also recognizing Kaze. "How is it that you've stayed alive all this time?"

"You ate my memories the second time when I went back in time," Kaze told her. "After I was possessed."

"I see, you had gone through a hole in time," the witch said, staying above Kiara's range and not noticing that Yusuke was aiming his finger at her. Kaze watched her carefully as they floated high above the others. "How do you remember that?"

"I remember everything," Kaze told her. "Stealing my memories wasn't permanent."

"I had expected you to lose your mind and die after I took your memories," the witch said. "After the angel possessed you, you should have been weak, definitely not strong enough to create new memories. I understand now that the reason you were able to was because it was not the first time in your experience that I had removed your m-agh!"

Yusuke shot at the woman at that moment and grazed her side, pulling her attention away from Kaze and towards him. Taking the chance, Kaze created a bow from light, as she'd done immediately after she'd been possessed, and pulled the string back, aiming at the woman. When she shot she hit the woman's shoulder, knocking her to the ground where Kiara took over, immediately fazing into a wolf and taking the woman's arm in her teeth.

As Kuwabara and Hiei ran forward with their swords ready to cut her to pieces, the witch locked eyes with Kaze, who was still floating above her. "Your memories were the only things that kept me sane these years," Kaze heard, feeling as if time has stopped as she listened. "I had tried to eat the angel, not to gain her powers, but to be killed. I've spent eternity mourning my losses, it's about time for me to finally die. Thank you for your memories." Kaze was released just as the witch was hacked to pieces, surprised to find tears running down her face.

"What happened?" Kiara asked, fazing back and instantly summoning clothes to cover her before anyone saw. Kaze shook her head, landing lightly on the ground and facing the demons.

"We've removed your execution method," Kurama told them. "We've won your game."

The demons all looked surprised that the group could kill the witch so quickly, but brought out the magic book they'd promised as the prize for winning.

Yusuke had just led the group back to the suite and they'd just finished packing, Kiara asking Kaze constantly what had happened with the witch, when they all felt an earthquake shake the building. "What's happening!" Kuwabara yelled, grabbing bags instantly, followed by the others and they all ran out of the suite as the building continued shaking.

"Maybe because someone won the prize, the island is going away!" Kaze yelled, following everyone outside, everyone keeping their footing even as the shaking grew larger and more dangerous.

"Either way, we need to get off the island as fast as we can," Kurama yelled back, holding Kiara's hand tightly as they ran. The group ran to the beach, watching everyone else panic and run towards the beach also, many of them getting on boats. The boats all left before the group reached the beach, however, so Kaze and Kiara pulled a wave to pick them and all the beings struggling to swim up, using their staffs as oars again and rowing them to the safety of the beach on the continent. They saw the island sink into the water as they rowed, thankful that they'd escaped before it had sunk.

The group landed on the sand, the landing a lot rougher than it had been on their way to the island due to Kaze and Kiara using too much energy simply rowing so many people. "Come on, let's get to another hotel for tonight," Kiara said, gasping and dragging herself up. Kaze groaned, dragging herself into a standing position also, allowing Hiei to help her stand, automatically wrapping herself in chakra so he didn't get dragged down by the weights in her clothes. They made their slow way to the nearest hotel, somehow getting some rooms in the hotel and walking up to dry themselves off properly before meeting to talk about what had happened.

"The witch was trying to eat the angel that possessed me because she was depressed," Kaze said slowly, organizing the memories the witch had shot into her head. "She'd become a witch to help her family years ago, but her family turned against her and tried to kill her. She automatically killed them without realizing what she was doing. She lived with the regret of killing them for years before she'd heard that when someone consumes an angel without the consent of that angel, they would die, no matter how strong they were. So even the witch, who had been unable to end her life since killing her family, would die once she consumed the angel. She hunted the angel down, but was just a bit too late because the angel chose to instead be consumed by me as I was falling. The witch was enraged by this, feeling she'd been cheated and, once more forgetting what she could do, attacked and removed my memories. She realized that my memories, due to me being possessed by an angel, eased the pain she felt, even weakened her and brought her close to the death she wished for.

"She didn't see me again and feared that she'd never find another like me to ease her pain," Kaze continued after pausing again. "She hadn't found another angel after the one who possessed me and once my memories stopped helping me. She searched but couldn't find anyone to help. Until she saw me again in Konoha. She had no reason to believe that I was any different than the first time she saw me and attacked, removing my memories. It didn't help her, but she did it again anyway near the tea shop. At that point she came here, thinking she had enough of my memories to last a while, and began searching this dimension for a new angel until she got recruited by those demons who ran the tournament. That's why she'd taken my memories and why she didn't fight when it was apparent that we were going to be able to kill her."

"So you've gotten your memories back?" Yusuke asked to be certain.

"I have," Kaze replied. "Have you taken a look at that book yet, Kia?"

"Yes, it looks like it has exactly what we need to make a doorway to Konoha," Kiara replied, holding the book up. "We'll look at it more once we get back to our house."

The group bid each other goodnight and separated into their rooms for the night. The next morning, Kaze woke up to find that she couldn't sense Hiei nor Kurama close by and stumbled out into the hallway to see Yusuke and Kuwabara changed and heading towards her. "Ah, you're awake," Yusuke said, waving. "We were just coming to see you. Our boss has called us away for another mission, so we have to go. We'll see you two when we get finished and back home."

"Okay, thanks for letting us know," Kaze said, frowning a little that Hiei hadn't bothered to say goodbye. The two men nodded and waved again, leaving the hotel as Kaze went back into the room she'd shared with Kiara. "The boys have left," Kaze told Kiara as she struggled awake. "We should head back now too and take a look at that book a little more." Kiara agreed and they packed up, checking out before Kiara grabbed hold of Kaze's arm and Kaze shadow-stepped them to their house.

"Ugh, I hate your shadow stepping," Kiara complained, shaking her head to clear of the fog that always accompanied the shadows.

"But it's so quick," Kaze said. "And it's easy to shadow step with you because you know how to keep yourself from thinking of too much stuff."

"I'd rather my head not explode because I was thinking of what to eat for dinner, that's for sure," Kiara agreed. They set their things in their rooms and met in the living room of their house. The two women shared a large mansion-like house out in the country near their town with enough rooms to sleep twenty people. They kept the house clean, a compulsive habit they'd both picked up when they'd lived on their own in Konoha after they'd had to recruit most of the village to clean their house and it still took most of the day.

"So the book states that the best way to go between dimensions would be to open up a doorway between using, obviously, a doorway," Kiara stated. "We could choose one of the rooms to cut out in the house and link it to our house in Konoha. Between the two of us I'm sure we'd be able to pull of the level of magic needed for the spell."

"Want to try it now?" Kaze asked, standing up and taking the book to read the spell. It was in the language of magic both girls had begun to read as soon as they got to America since it was the only language most spells would work in.

"Yea, let's do the room at the end of our hallway," Kiara suggested, leading Kaze up the stairs and past their rooms to the end of the hallway, stopping in front of the door she'd indicated. She opened the door to see that the room was completely empty before closing it again and taking the book from Kaze once more. The two girls put their hands on the doorway, read the spell carefully out loud and in unison, and sent a large spark of energy through their fingertips into the door, both thinking very specifically of the room at the end of their hallway in Konoha. The doorway shook and they heard a large thump, as if something heavy had dropped on the other side of the doorway.


	16. Chapter 16

**They've expanded their home to link together all their parts. They finally reached their goal!**

**Disclaimer, I do not own Yu Yu Haksuho, Inu Yasha, Naruto, or Nightmare Inspector.**

* * *

"I'm afraid to open it," Kaze said after a moment of both girls staring at the doorway.

"Me too," Kiara replied, turning instead to the door. "Ah, look at that!" She pointed to the ground and Kaze looked down to see light shining through the bottom of the doorway.

"Our house in the village was always very bright…" Kaze said slowly, taking a deep breath and getting hit with the smell of their house in the village. "Oh, I missed that smell," she sighed, her eyes closing. "Do you think anyone cleaned it while we were away?"

"Only one way to find out," Kiara said, grabbing the handle and twisting it. They heard it click and she opened it slowly, getting it open completely before they realized that someone was standing on the other side of the door.

"Kaze?" The man asked, his small black glasses sliding off his nose as he pulled his hood off. His bright blue eyes stared in shock at the two girls, locked on Kaze's green ones.

"Shino," Kaze said, a smile overtaking her face and she threw herself into his arms, hugging him tightly.

"It's really you?" Shino asked, automatically hugging Kaze. She nodded and his eyes got watery, so he squeezed her tightly. "I've missed you so much!" When Kaze pulled away, Shino even pulled Kiara into a hug, then wiped his eyes, putting his glasses back on his face. "Are you both okay? Do you remember everything? Where did you go?"

"Yes, we're okay," Kiara said.

"I do remember everything," Kaze agreed.

"And we've been to too many places to count," Kiara ended, rubbing her own eyes. "Is everyone in the village?"

"Yea, Kakashi and his team came back yesterday from their mission, but no one has said anything about what had happened," Shino said.

"That's because we saw them," Kaze told him. "They were here in this dimension in a tournament."

"You have to tell me what happened while you both were away," Shino said, leading the two girls down the hallway. Before Kaze followed, she shut the door, opened it again to make sure it was still linking the two houses, then shut it again. She opened the book again and found a spell to transmit sound between the two houses and cast it so they could hear the door in case anyone came to see them.

Kaze followed Shino downstairs, impressed that the house seemed to be completely clean still. "Did you clean this while we were away?" She asked Shino, sitting next to him on the couch.

"The others helped, but we'd always hoped you'd both come back, so we made sure the keep your house dusted and neat," Shino admitted, shrugging. "So where did you two go after you left?"

Kaze and Kiara began taking turns telling their stories, each giving their own versions as they remembered them and Kaze laughing when she realized that she did some weird things when she didn't remember and how many times her body had done something automatically that she wasn't supposed to remember being able to do.

The three talked well into the night until Shino yawned and they decided to go to sleep. They took separate rooms, the distance they'd experienced for years preventing them from staying in the same room like they used to do.

The next morning, Kiba and Hinata came to pick Shino up, both surprised to find Kaze and Kiara in the house also. After exchanging tearful hellos, Shino, Kiba, and Hinata had to leave on a mission, simple due to Hinata's pregnancy.

The two women decided to walk around the town, meeting up with their old teachers and friends, explaining to each of them when they gathered in groups what the two had been doing for the past five years. Finally, after being stopped many times, Kaze and Kiara reached the Hokage's tower. "Do you think Nade-sama is still here?" Kaze asked, walking up the stairs next to Kiara.

Kiara paused and tilted her head before nodding. "Yup, that sounds like her up there," she confirmed, walking again.

"Ah, you two!" A guard said in surprise, quickly quieting down when Kiara put her finger over her lips.

"You should warn Tsunade-sama that some guests, who were not invited, have found their way into the village," Kiara told the man gravely.

"Who?" The man asked. Kiara waved to she and Kaze and the man nodded in understanding, realizing the two girls wanted to play a trick on their old teacher. "Hokage-sama!" The man suddenly shouted, sounding panicked and banging the door open. "We have someone in the village!"

"Who's here?" Tsunade asked, not yet sounding concerned.

"I'm not sure, but they're dangerous and skilled!" The man shouted, waving his arms in excitement. "They've taken our best jounin out!"

Kaze nodded in agreement. "It's true, we have," Kaze said to Kiara. "It was years ago, but I'm sure we've knocked out every jounin here at least once."

"What?!" Tsunade shouted, her chair scraping. "Where are they now?!"

"I think they're outside," the man said slowly. Kaze caught a sound immediately before they were attacked and shoved Kiara aside with one hand, throwing her ten feet across the hall as a wave of sand flew out of the room and wrapped itself around Kaze, tightly. Almost instantly the sand relaxed, surprising the owner of the sand.

"My sand won't attack," the deep voice said slowly, stepping outside. "It's only ever done that once…"

"You really shouldn't attack your best friends," Kiara scolded Gaara, who quickly dropped the sand from around Kaze.

"Oh my god… You two… You're back!" Tsunade said, also coming outside and nearly collapsing as Kaze chose to tackle Gaara, hugging him tightly.

"We didn't realize you'd be here, Gaara-kun," Kaze said to the Kazekage, grinning as he stared at her in shock.

"When did you get back?" Gaara asked, standing up when Kaze got off of him.

"Just yesterday," Kiara told him, she and Kaze taking turns hugging Tsunade tightly and thanking the guard. "We saw Shino before he left and just walked through the village and saw a lot of other people."

"I just heard there was a ninja attack!" A man yelled, running up the stairs to Tsunade's office, missing the people who were standing around her. "What happened? Where are they? Is everyone okay?"

"You've gotten really excitable since I last saw you, Shika-san," Kaze said after a moment of silence. Shikamaru, his ponytail high on his head, turned quickly to see Kaze and Kiara standing to one side. "Are you sick?"

Shikamaru blinked at the two girls, not comprehending how they were in the village. "How… When… You're back," he finally spluttered. The two girls nodded, waiting for him to go back to the Shikamaru they'd known for years. "Oh… Well good, I'm glad there's not a problem. That would have been troublesome," he said, sticking his hands in his pockets and turning to leave.

"You're not even surprised we're back?" Kaze asked, gaping at his back.

"Of course I am, but asking is just so troublesome," Shikamaru replied, shrugging. He walked down the stairs, soon disappearing from their sight.

"He is so aggravating sometimes," Kiara grumbled.

"He is," Gaara agreed. "He got married to Temari, so he's always in our village. He's so… pessimistic." Kaze laughed suddenly, hugging Gaara again.

The two girls invited Tsunade and Gaara to their house that night so they could explain everything that they'd done since they left, then walked out of the tower to invite some others. Some of their friends were off on missions, but many were in the village and agreed to come.

That night, Kiara and Kaze were surrounded by Neji, Choji, Shikamaru, Lee, Ten Ten, Ino, Sakura, Sasuke, Narute, Iruka, Kakashi, Gaara, Temari, Kankuro, Tsunade, and Gai. They spent a few hours telling their stories again, the group laughing as they listened to the stories each girl had to tell. Eventually all their stories were told and the group they'd invited over left, leaving Kaze and Kiara alone in the house.

"Kaze-sama?" Kiara began after a while of silence. Kaze let out a sound, signaling she should go on. "I don't want to stay here," Kiara continued slowly, staring at her hands in her lap. "I know it's our home, but I like the dimension we've been forced to live in for the past few years."

"I understand," Kaze said.

"I'm not trying to make you mad, I just found someone who wants to be with me in that dimension, and everyone here has moved on. I'm afraid I won't find someone if I give this one up," Kiara continued frantically, not hearing Kaze.

"I know," Kaze said again, staring at the door to their kitchen.

"And I know that's a stupid reason to want to stay somewhere, but I just can't help it!" Kiara continued, still not hearing Kaze. "Please don't be mad at me, I just-"

"Kiara, shut up," Kaze said forcefully. "I get it, I do. I understand."

"You do?" Kiara asked, confused.

"I've been saying so since you began talking," Kaze told her, nodding. She was still staring blankly at the kitchen and opened her mouth to say something else when they heard an echoing knock. "That's at the other house," Kaze told Kiara, waving for her to go get it. Kiara did so, racing up the stairs and through the door to answer their front door in America.

When the door opened, Kiara was swept into a hug, her face automatically being buried in red hair. "Ah, Kurama!" Kiara said, surprised. She hugged the man back, smiling hugely. "Are you all done with your mission?"

"Yes, it was a success," Kurama told her. "I'm sorry for coming to see you and then running away, but I wanted to make sure you got home safely. I really do have to go now."

"That's fine, thank you for coming over!" Kiara told him, hugging him again.

"I'll come back tomorrow," Kurama promised before leaving. Kiara walked back to the house in Konoha and sat down next to Kaze, who had not moved.

"That's cute," Kaze said after a moment. "Your boyfriend came to see you." She sighed heavily. "I wish someone came to see me."

"I'm sure he will," Kiara assured her. "Anyway, I sent a letter to Hiruko asking if they could install a door we could attach to, even if it didn't go anywhere. We could try to connect to Feudal Japan tonight, then wait for Hiruko to answer before connecting with them."

"We'd have to make sure there's an empty house in Feudal Japan somewhere, though," Kaze told Kiara. "Should we try to travel there first?"

"Nope, I asked Mel when we'd seen her, hoping the book would have something that would connect buildings in it. She said there was a small hut on the edge of the town no one was using. Remember that one?" Kiara told her. Kaze nodded, clearly able to see the little hut in her mind. "She said she'd make sure no one was in there when they went back, so I'm sure we can use that one."

"If it's a problem, there's a reversal spell in the book also," Kaze decided, standing and leading the way back to their hallway in America. "We should paint these doors different colors. Konoha should be green, I think."

"I agree," Kiara nodded.

The two chose another door in the hallway to dedicate to Feudal Japan and pulled the book out again, reading the spell one more time while focusing on the small hut they remembered in Feudal Japan. They touched the door and a spark ran through their hands to it. The door shook as the first one did and a thump sounded on the other side. No light shone under the door, which made sense as it was nighttime in Feudal Japan. Kaze opened the door slowly and the two were hit with the distinct smell of flowers and grass.

"I remember this smell," Kaze sighed happily. "With so little civilization to ruin the scent, it was so pure."

"It's so nice," Kiara agreed. They stepped out and the grass bent under their shoes.

"Who's there?" A voice called out from above them. A figure dropped down in front of the two women, but neither flinched and regarded the figure carefully.

"Hi, Sho," Kaze said, holding her arms out to the demon. After a moment of watching Kaze, the tiger demon finally recognized her and jumped into her arms, immediately shifting into his cat shape. "You've gotten big since I last saw you!" Kaze laughed, nearly struggling to hold the cat, who was still small for a tiger, but now the size of a large cat.

"You're here," Inu Yasha said, appearing behind the two women.

"We are," Kiara replied. "We won the tournament and got the book that gave us the ability to connect dimensions and places."

"Kia-chan! Kaze-sama!" A woman yelled out, running towards the woman and hugging them tightly. "Does this hut connect to your house now?"

"Hi, Mel. Yes, we just connected it, so you can come visit whenever you'd like," Kaze told her. "Hey, um, where's… Mira?" Kaze asked, raising an eyebrow at Inu Yasha. He sighed and looked away unhappily.

"She… Left," Mel said simply. "Just like you predicted she would." Kaze nodded, but dropped the subject. "Priestess Rin would want to see you both again, come on!" Mel led Kiara and Kaze to Rin's hut and the group all sat down, Koga joining with his new mate whom he'd met on a solo mission, as Kiara and Kaze told of their adventures.

"It is amazing how far you two went to get back to your home," Rin said when the two women were done. "You both seem to have found people to make you happy also; I'm happy for you both."

"Speaking of which, someone's ringing our doorbell," Kaze said, hearing the sound in her ear and standing up. "I'll go get it."


	17. Chapter 17

**This is it! The last chapter! Thanks for sticking with it through the entire thing, I know it's been a long wait. But it's all done!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho, Nightmare Inspector, Inu Yasha, or Naruto.**

* * *

Kaze ran out the door and to the small hut, crashing into the door before opening it and racing down the stairs. "I'm coming!" She yelled when the person rang the doorbell again. She opened the door a minute later to see Yusuke standing outside. "Hey, what's up?" Kaze asked, catching her breath.

"Have you seen Hiei?" Yusuke asked her. She shook her head, confused. "He ran off after our mission and we haven't been able to find him. I thought maybe he'd come here."

"Why would he have come here?" Kaze asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Because you two should be together, that's why," Yusuke snapped at her. Her eyebrows shot up in surprise at the statement. "You know you should be, you're just too afraid of rejection to take him seriously and he gets pissed off easily. If you'd just be with him he wouldn't run off. He might even settle down!"

"Uh… I… I never said I wouldn't…" Kaze began, embarrassed.

"I'm afraid he went back to Mukuro," Yusuke sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Can you come with me?"

Mukuro was one of the demons on the demon plane. Hiei had gone through a time when he stayed and fought on her side when everyone was deciding who should be the ruler of the demon plane. Kaze frowned, upset that Hiei might have gone back to her, but nodded. "Yea, let me let Kiara know and I'll be ready in just a moment. Come on inside," she said, opening the door and waiting for Yusuke to step inside before running back upstairs and through the door.

"What's up?" Kiara asked, noticing Kaze's annoyed look.

"I have to go find Hiei," Kaze told her. "He ran off and Yusuke wants me to go with him to see Mukuro to see if he went there. I'll be back in a few hours."

"Good luck!" Kiara yelled after Kaze when she left again.

"Who's Hiei?" Inu Yasha asked, frowning.

"Someone who cares about her," Kiara replied. "He's been upset that Kaze's not paying attention to his feelings for her, so he ran off, it sounds like. She got pretty serious about not being with anyone again after we left here because she keeps feeling like her luck with men hasn't been good her entire life."

"So she's just giving up on being with anyone?" Inu Yasha snorted. "That's not the Kaze I remember." Kiara shrugged, turning back to her conversation with Mel and Rin.

Kaze followed Yusuke quickly down an alley to a doorway. "They've opened doors like this to the demon plane?" Kaze asked, surprised.

"Yea, there're tons of them all around," Yusuke told her, opening the door and taking the steps down. "After the first tournament, demons decided they could play nice with humans, so they were allowed to come to the human plane." The two walked down the steps until they came to another door. Yusuke walked through it, only closing it after Kaze walked through also, then led the way down the mountain they were suddenly on to a path. Kaze looked around the demon plane, seeing that the sky was red and the area they were in was full of dark mountains and cliffs.

"Mukuro is in this area?" Kaze asked, following Yusuke down the path.

"Just on the other side of this mountain is a plateau with her castle," Yusuke explained, leading Kaze around a bend. They then saw the plateau and Kaze stared at the castle with wide eyes.

"Are you sure Hiei's here?" Kaze asked, slightly wary.

"No, I just know he's been known to come here at times," Yusuke told her, leading her to the door. Yusuke knocked and waited until a demon opened the door for them. "We'd like to see Mukuro," he told the demon, who then nodded and pointed down the hall. Yusuke and Kaze walked down the hall and through the door at the end, finding Mukuro in her chair in the room, surrounded by demons who were all trying to give her information.

"Ah, Yusuke," Mukuro said, noticing the two visitors. "Everyone leave, I'd like to speak to these two alone." The demons all bowed and left as she'd instructed.

"We were just wondering if you'd seen Hiei," Yusuke said to Mukuro.

"Me? Why would I have seen him?" Mukuro asked, her tone slightly mocking. "Last I'd heard he'd fallen for some girl and was completely hung up on her." She sniffed as if she was upset. "Even ignored me when I'd called him."

"Well, he ran off," Yusuke told her. "If you see him, can you tell him I'm looking for him?"

"I'd be happy to," Mukuro told him. "But I can't help but wonder why he ran off. Did someone dump him?" She directed her question at Kaze, who bristled.

"I didn't dump him," Kaze told her icily. "I just didn't give him a straight answer because I wasn't ready. If he'd waited until I was done with my house I would have been happy to let him know I wanted to be with him. But he didn't. Obviously I wasn't important enough to keep him around."

"You really should have said something to him," Mukuro said, standing slowly.

"And you really should have stayed out of it," Kaze replied, her anger setting off a barrier of fire around her. "He ran away because he didn't want to wait for my answer, not because I dumped him." With that she turned away and stomped off, Yusuke following while shaking his head.

"You could have at least told him you needed time," Yusuke spoke up after some time as they were walking back to Kaze's house.

"I would have, but you all decided to leave suddenly and he and Kurama didn't say goodbye," Kaze told him. "I would have given him an answer at that point or at least told him to give me more time."

The two walked in silence until they got back to the house. "If I find him I'll send him here," Yusuke told her. "Do you at least have an answer now?"

"Yes, after I punch him for running off," Kaze told him, walking inside and waving to Yusuke as he left.

"I'd rather you didn't punch me," Hiei said, nearly startling Kaze from his place on the couch in the entryway.

"Why did you run off?" Kaze asked, leaning against the wall to pretend she wasn't alarmed.

"I needed my own time to think," Hiei told her.

"Why? You'd already said you were interested in me," Kaze scoffed. "What could you have needed to think about?"

"I'd said I was interested," Hiei agreed, standing up. "But I needed to make sure how much." Kaze raised an eyebrow, unwilling to speculate as to what he meant. "I did go to see Mukuro," Hiei admitted. "But that was because there'd been a time when I was interested in her too. I needed to make sure my interest in you was more and different from my interest in her. Turns out it was a waste of a trip because I'm not interested in her at all any longer. So I went to talk to Kurama, who was kind enough to explain the emotion I've been feeling to me."

"And what emotion is that?" Kaze asked, sighing.

"I love you, it seems," Hiei told her, walking closer. Kaze's heart skipped, but she ignored it as he walked closer. "It's not that I just want you, I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Unfortunately for me, the rest of my life is quite a bit away as long as I don't get killed, so I know if I don't address it now and some handsome man from one of your other worlds sweeps you off your feet, I'll be unhappy for an especially long time."

Kaze finally turned to face him. "Do you really?" She asked, wary. No one had ever asked to marry her, which is what she'd been wanting for some time but had assumed would never be allowed for her. If Hiei, whom she had begun to only think about every minute, was asking her… She'd begun to question if she was actually dreaming.

"I'm not too familiar with the customs of humans, like Kurama is, but he explained this to me also," Hiei told her, pulling out a small ring. "I know I've only caused you trouble and confusion, but would you please stay with me?"

Kaze's mouth dropped open at the sight of the ring. He was actually asking to marry her. She met his red eyes and found they were the same ones she continued to dream about and had been trying to avoid staring into whenever they were near. The same eyes she'd begun to look forward to, even though they had seemed to avoid her. "I'd love to," Kaze replied, allowing Hiei to slip the ring on her finger before he kissed her gently.


End file.
